


Ricochet

by gwendee



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amnesia, Angst, Canon Compliant Events, Character swap, Crack Treated Seriously, Dysfunctional Family, Family Dynamics, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Memory Loss, TAG UPDATE, The Author Regrets Nothing, Time Shenanigans, Time Travel, sorry everyone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:28:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 22,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26511409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwendee/pseuds/gwendee
Summary: Gakuhou wakes up one day and suddenly he's a decade older than he last remembered, he's in charge of a school, his no-longer-a-toddler-now-a-teenager son hates him, and his head hurts.Or: Gakuhou loses a decades worth of his memory, everything is different, and he feels like he’s been shot ten years into the future,and, well, he’s right.(Somewhere else, Gakuhou comes to with a toddler who’s supposed to be fourteen and a student who is supposed to be dead.)
Relationships: Asano Gakuhou & Asano Gakushuu
Comments: 652
Kudos: 499





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Nobody:  
> Gwen: ruin the Asanos' day
> 
> Hi! For those who don't know me: well honestly could you have gone this long in this fandom reading Asano-centric fics without at least seeing my name once? Jk but like not really  
> Anyways it's Gwen and she is about to ruin the Asanos' day.

**Have you seen my son?**

When he opens his eyes, he sees himself staring back at him.

Well, not quite, but the person scowling down at him could be a reflection if he wanted to be, except several decades younger. He looks displeased for some reason, his arms crossed.

The teenager opens his mouth. "You didn't hit your head and ascend to the astral plane for a moment there, did you, sir?"

Now that he mentioned it, Gakuhou's head kind of hurts a little. There's a low throbbing pain at the base of his skull that doesn't feel like anything that couldn't be eliminated with a little bit of aspirin. 

The kid is still talking. "-unnecessary," he says, arms crossed now.

Gakuhou's lying with his back on the floor. Did he fall down somehow and hit his head? The ceiling is not any ceiling he remembers seeing, and a cursory glance around lets him know that he is in an unfamiliar room. 

The kid has stopped speaking, and is now glaring at him. His foot is tapping against the ground. Gakuhou glances at him.

He looks like, well, a teenaged version of Gakuhou himself. Except not quite, because the kid was a strawberry blonde and Gakuhou was on the spectrum of reddish-brown, and that was the most obvious difference. Other than that Gakuhou would swear that he had a thinner nose and a sharper chin and-

Oh, he's speaking again. "Are you having a stroke or something because-"

Is Gakuhou having a stroke? He didn't think so. He certainly didn't feel like he was having one, but he doesn't suppose stroke patients can tell when they're having one, either. Maybe it's worth to check.

Wait, who cares if he's having a stroke? Who is this kid? Where is he? How did he even get here? What was he doing before this? He was at the classroom, school has ended, he was grading papers, Gakushuu was-

"Gakushuu!" Gakuhou jolts. Where was he?

The kid startles. "What?"

"Gakushuu!" Gakuhou repeats. "Where is- have you-"

The kid drops to his knees and suddenly he's all up in Gakuhou's space, so quickly and blatantly that Gakuhou freezes in shock. Then the kid's hands are on his face and he's staring straight into Gakuhou's eyes. 

"I was joking about the stroke but are you actually having one?" He says, looking worried. 

Then Gakuhou regains his bearings and quickly pushes the kid off. Gently, because the kid doesn't seem like a threat, and clearly showed some form of concern for him. But Gakuhou's priority was finding out where Gakushuu is now. 

"I don't have a stroke," Gakuhou says. "Listen kid, I don't have time for this, I need to find my son." And with another visual sweep around the room (it's bare, but that was good, because Gakuhou can see with a quick glance that there's no hidden spaces for a four-year-old to squeeze in) and he pivots to the door.

He steps out into… a hallway that he too does not recognize.

What the fuck is happening? Where is Gakushuu? He's not in this hallway. Where is he? Gakushuu must be lost, he must be looking for him. He must be scared. Gakuhou starts running.

"Wait!" The kid is calling out from behind him. Gakuhou can let himself be interrogated later but he needs to find his son first. 

"Gakushuu!" He yells. "Gakushuu, where are you!"

There's a placard by a stairwell, and Gakuhou quickly goes down. He's on the sixth floor of a school building. There are noticeboards on the wall and one of the large windows overlook a courtyard. Gakuhou has no idea where he is.

"Hey, stop!" Kid is yelling after him.

Not an option. 

"Gakushuu!" He's on the fifth floor now. There are a few students in the hallway, and they look at him with wide eyes. 

One of them says, "um, are you looking for Asano?"

They must have heard him yelling for Gakushuu. "Yes," Gakuhou says quickly. "Where-"

"Shut up!" Oh, it's Kid. He steps in front of Gakuhou, arms held out in front of him. He looks panicked.

"Listen," Gakuhou says, "I don't have time for-"

"I'll tell you everything you need to know," Kid says quickly. "Just come with me first, okay?"

Gakuhou scowls. "First tell me where my son is."

There's an audible gasp from their onlookers. The students are now looking at the both of them with confusion. Kid whips around, then turns back to Gakuhou, face pinched. "It's  _ me _ ," he hisses, jabbing a finger to his chest, "I'm Gakushuu!"

This is the most insane thing Gakuhou has ever heard because this boy is delusional. He rises to his full height and glowers. He knows he is an intimidating man and he's not hesitant to use it if he needs to. "Excuse me?"

"Oh stop that," Kid snaps, getting up into his personal space again, and that essentially snuffs out Gakuhou's momentum. That's a firs.

Kid turns around. "Ren, call for an ambulance."

Ren is the student that asked him about Asano earlier. He's gaping, but he quickly snaps to attention when addressed. 

"Hey," Gakuhou says, "Ren! Where is Gak-"

"Oh for fuck's sake," Kid snaps, and steps on his foot. "You hit your head and you're dissociating or whatever, I'm Gakushuu Asano! I'm born on New Year's and I'm fourteen, and-" 

He grabs Gakuhou's left hand before Gakuhou registers enough to pull it away.

"I gave you this scar because I didn't want to eat yams and afterwards you made me memorize the nutritional properties of all rhizomes and human requirements because you said I should be able to make informed and educated decisions if I wanted to refuse a good or service." 

That was… very oddly specific and also correct...

...and Gakushuu did have strawberry blonde hair… and this explained the uncanny resemblance… but really?

"Gakushuu?" Gakuhou squints at the kid, who now wears an exasperated look on his face. But he does look a lot like Gakuhou, and he looks a lot like an aged up version of his toddler.

Is that really him? Why is he… ten years in the future? 

"Thank god!" Kid (Gakushuu fourteen years old?) throws his hands up in the air. "Ren, let me know when the ambulance comes." And then he drags Gakuhou by the wrist back where they came, and now Gakuhou is in the same room he woke up in.

\--

"I know you still don't believe me," Gakushuu (?) is saying. "Give me your phone.

Gakuhou pats his pockets and pulls out a… that's not his phone. Why is the screen so big? Where are it's buttons?

Gakushuu swipes it, taps on the screen, woah! 

Gakushuu looks at him, brows furrowed. "What year are you in?"

"2004." The screen is prompting for a password and there's a digital keyboard there. Gakushuu taps on it and the screen switches to a different display, and then he taps on it some more. If anything, seeing this technology is really selling the point that this is the future.

"This is a touchscreen smartphone," he says. "This is," tap tap, "your photo gallery. See? You have pictures from when I was a kid. Just swipe the screen to move to the next one."

Gakuhou gingerly takes it, and he presses his finger to the screen. Then the image suddenly shifts. “Woah!”

“Don’t long press it, that activates a different function,” Gakushuu says. “Just tap and swipe quickly.”

“Okay.” The current picture is one of Gakushuu as he remembers it - four years old, wide-eyed and adorable, beaming at the camera. The next few pictures he swipes through are similar. Then he comes across one he does not recognize. It was still Gakushuu as a child, and he looked about the same age, but he was, well, dressed in a shirt Gakuhou had never seen before. And if this was the future - or the present, that is, then this picture would be taken later than he remembered.

Gakuhou keeps swiping. There’s a few more pictures of the toddler, and then suddenly there’s a picture of Gakushuu much older, like the photographs have skipped a few years.

Gakuhou looks up. Gakushuu is frowning at him.

“You’re saying I forgot ten years of my life,” Gakuhou says. “The last thing I remember is…” he thinks for a moment, “being at the cram school with you. I can't refute your point because if I do have amnesia, I clearly won't remember it."

Gakushuu's face is pinched. "Yes. We're going to the hospital. You hit your head."

Ah. Now that he wasn't worried on adrenaline, the pain in his head is coming back. "What was I doing?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Gakushuu says. He pulls something out of his pocket. Is that his phone? It looks just as futuristic as Gakuhou's. "Come on, let's go down to the courtyard to wait for the paramedics. Please don't speak to anyone. I'm sure the news has spread right now so expect a lot of looks from everyone."

Gakuhou frowns, but he supposes that is good advice before he gets his bearings. "Are you going to catch me up on the past decade?"

"Uh," Gakushuu says. "Yeah. For starters, this is Kunugigaoka Middle School."

They begin heading down the stairs.

"This is your school," Gakushuu continues. "You're the principal. The room we were just in is your office. The old cram school classroom is still standing, it's actually within school compound. You use it for… uh…" Gakushuu's voice trails off. "Miscellaneous purposes."

"Oh," Gakuhou says. Gakushuu is right, he's getting a lot of strange looks now as they pass more students. He supposes that the principal bursting out from his office with no recognition of his own son must not be an everyday sight.

"That band on your arm," Gakuhou says. 

Gakushuu startles, and his hand flies up to touch it. "Oh, this," Gakushuu says. "It's, uh, I'm the student council president this year." He looks awkward when he says so.

Hearing that feels Gakuhou with some pride. "What else?" 

"Oh, uh," Gakushuu is frowning. "Just. Stuff."

He must be shy. If Gakushuu was anything like how Gakuhou raised- or rather how he supposedly already raised him, Gakuhou has no doubt that he would grow up to achieve - has already achieved - great things. He's the student council president! And from the look on his face, he probably has more responsibilities under his belt he's too shy to share.

Gakuhou ruffles Gakushuu's hair. What an odd action because he's used to crouching down to reach his four year old but Gakushuu is almost as tall as him now! He's grown so much!

Gakushuu freezes. 

Gakuhou slowly lifts his hand. "You okay?"

"Um," Gakushuu says.

"I must not do this often," Gakuhou guesses. That makes sense. It's a strange position to try and reach the head of someone of a similar height.

"Yeah," Gakushuu says. He looks awkward for a brief moment, but quickly stands up straight again. 

The boy from earlier, Ren, runs up to the both of them. "Hey, Asano," he says, "uh, and… Principal?" 

"Don't bother," Gakushuu says, and he reaches out and grabs Ren by the arm. It looks like an action steeped in familiarity. They must be friends. Of course Gakuhou expects Gakushuu to have friends! But seeing it in person, he can't help but smile. 

Gakushuu turns around. "Stop making that face," he says.

It must be weird for your father to be in charge of your school. No wonder Gakushuu is bashful.

"-carry on without me," Gakushuu is saying to Ren. "You have the agenda?"

"Of course," Ren says.

"Do you have a council meeting scheduled?" Gakuhou asks, and Ren startles like he'd forgotten he was there. Gakushuu just looks perturbed. "I'm sure you can carry on-"

"Are you insane?" Gakushuu says, surprisingly loud. "I'm not leaving you alone. You're going to walk into a wall and then forget you have a son at all."

Gakuhou snickers. Gakushuu was so snarky and cute.

**Gakuhou: So what kind of dad am I? A cool dad? A hip dad? Do you have a girlfriend?**

**Gakushuu: No, no and no.**

**Gakuhou: Do I have a girlfriend?**

**Gakushuu: ...if you did I don't know about her?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Awww you guys <3 Thanks for the support AHHA I appreciate it.  
> I see you all know me very well. Yes, there will be angst! I'm glad we have established that early. Heheh.

**"On one hand I want to say you deserve it but on another are you even fit to be my legal guardian right now? I'm pretty sure your driver's license isn't even valid right now," Gakushuu, probably.**

"So there's nothing medically wrong with you," Gakushuu says, scowling at his phone. "But there's clearly something wrong."

He looks so worried it's sweet. Gakuhou wanted to say he was fine, and for all intents and purposes he felt good and healthy, but Gakushuu is right - there was clearly something wrong.

"I feel like I time travelled moreso than I have amnesia," Gakuhou says. Everything seems so surreal. 

"Sorry to break it to you but time travel doesn't exist yet," Gakushuu says, rolling his eyes. "Especially not within the space of your office."

Gakuhou hums thoughtfully. The doctor had said that he didn't seem to suffer from any sort of physical trauma, but the brain was a tricky thing. He administered some aspirin and express instructions to come through the Emergency Room should the situation change, and sent them on their way.

And now they were having dinner.

"You're all grown up," Gakuhou says unnecessarily for the third time that meal, but in his defense he's giddy on 1. aspirin and 2. parental pride. Gakushuu looks exasperated, but there's a little smile on his lips.

"Eat your vegetables," Gakushuu says.

"That Ren," Gakuhou says. 

"Sakakibara," Gakushuu supplies. "He's my student council secretary."

Gakuhou raises an eyebrow. "And a friend?"

Gakushuu rolls his eyes. "My best friend, if you could call him that," he pauses. "We met in elementary school."

"Oh," Gakuhou says. He'll remember that… except it already happened, and he doesn't.

Gakushuu narrows his eyes. "What's wrong?"

Ah, trust his son to be as perceptive as ever. "I don't remember a thing about us," Gakuhou says, and it comes out far more sorrowful than he'd expected. Gakushuu looks surprised.

"It's…" Gakushuu says, before he bites his lip and looks away.

"I don't even remember your best friend," Gakuhou says. "Everything we've done, the memories we made… I'm drawing a complete blank. Not even a haze."

"Oh," Gakushuu says, and he looks conflicted.

"I still love you," Gakuhou says fiercely, "don't think I stop just because I don't remember what we ate for dinner yesterday. You're my son, you're my baby, I-"

"Alright! I get it!" Gakushuu quickly says, and his face is red. And then Gakuhou looks around and thinks he might have maybe been speaking too loud.

"There's nothing wrong with you so maybe you'll wake up tomorrow and be completely fine," Gakushuu mumbles. There's something in his voice that Gakuhou can't place. 

"Even if I don't, I'll still love you," Gakuhou reassures.

"Yeah," Gakushuu says, with a smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes.

\--

The house is… well, it felt different. It felt different enough that Gakuhou felt uncomfortable thinking of it as his house, so it was the house for now. Of course he didn't expect to step into the house he remembered straight from a decade ago, but...

The living room looked like something out of an interior home magazine. It was pristine, and spotless, and there was something about it that Gakuhou couldn't put a finger on quite just yet.

"We didn't make any major redecorating changes so everything should be in the same place," Gakushuu is telling him. "My bedroom's still the same place so you know where to find me if you need-"

"There are no pictures of us." Gakuhou notices that. He has some photo frames of Gakushuu on the mantle. There are none here now. 

Im fact, it's the lack of a personal touch of everything that was making this place feel off. There were keys on the table and shoes on the rack but it was minimal to a degree that even Gakuhou felt was extreme.

"O-oh," Gakushuu says, "ah. I had some friends over recently and they… well I didn't want them so see my baby pictures…" Gakushuu scuffs the carpet with his foot. "I mean, they're all in my room, I just haven't gotten to putting them back yet."

Gakuhou looks at Gakushuu, amused. "That's funny." It was, and it seemed exactly like something out of a teenage parenting book. The bookstore clerk had been confused when Gakuhou told her that his son was four, given that he was looking up material for children the age of fourteen. It was good to be prepared and it never hurts to read ahead, and now Gakuhou was glad he did.

Gakuhou supposes he shouldn't expect to see colorful blocks or half-finished puzzles on the floor, either.

"You should take a shower," Gakushuu says. "I'll give you a crash course on, uh, the past ten years of your life."

Gakuhou's switched shampoos and soaps in the decade, but his fashion choices didn't seem to change much. 

Gakushuu's putting back the pictures when Gakuhou comes back down the living room. There are some new photographs Gakuhou doesn't remember from the phone photo gallery, and he takes the time to appreciate them as Gakushuu straightens out the frames. 

"Aww." A picture of the both of them at a beachfront. Gakushuu looks slightly older, maybe he's nine or ten.

Gakushuu sits him down and, true to his word, gives Gakuhou a crash course on, well, everything. He tells Gakuhou about Kunugigaoka Middle and High school, which he started after the success of his cram school. He teaches Gakuhou the important functions of his phone. Then he runs through the evolution of the news and world politics, and then he tells Gakuhou that a giant yellow octopus blew up the moon.

Wait what?

"Don't look at me like that," Gakushuu sniffs. 

Then Gakushuu sends him off to bed and Gakuhou feels a silly sort of amusement, being shooed off and tucked in by his son. He literally remembers it like yesterday when Gakushuu was four years old and bouncing for a bedtime story, and now he's setting a glass of water by his bed and telling him not to die in his sleep.

"The both of us are taking off school tomorrow," Gakushuu says.

"You don't have to do that," Gakuhou says.

Gakushuu rolls his eyes. "Have I told you I'm your top scorer yet? I can afford to miss a day of lessons. I'm not leaving you by yourself in this useless state. I haven't even taught you how to use your ipad."

"What is an ipad?" 

"Goodnight," Gakushuu says cheerily, and flicks off the light.

\--

It's hard to fall asleep.

Gakuhou lets his mind drift, and it turns to territory that he didn't want to ponder over in the day. Namely, Gakushuu didn't like him. 

Why? Gakuhou doesn't know. He didn't have proof to back it up, and Gakushuu acted nice to him today, but it was some gut feeling he got that settled uncomfortably at the pit of his stomach. It almost feels like they have quite recently gotten into some sort of argument.

Perhaps it was just the unfamiliarity of the situation. Gakushuu was older now, he wouldn't be as physically affectionate or childishly clingy as when he was four. Perhaps that was it? The stark difference in expected behavior that was so off-putting.

Gakushuu must be feeling rather awkward himself. Perhaps he was keeping a distance because he didn't know how to act around Gakuhou. They must seem like very different people. Gakuhou wasn't the same person he was 10 years ago and he knows he won't be the same person 10 years later. 

But that didn't explain the photos. Gakuhou had bought the initial story, because Gakushuu told it with an embarrassed half-smile and an endearing fidget and an almost distracted, recalling demeanor. But the photo frames were new, and the pictures were freshly printed and slid so quickly into the frame that the still-wet ink smudged against the glass almost imperceptibly. Gakushuu was lying, there were no photo frames originally up on the mantle at all.

And that was another thing, because Gakushuu was good at lying. He was great, and Gakuhou wouldn't have been able to tell if not for the slight imperfection of the props. Has he lied to Gakuhou about anything else today? 

Gakuhou should stop thinking about it for now. All that was pure speculation, but what he knew for sure is that he has fast forwarded a decade in the future. That fact must be worrying and terrifying, and Gakushuu's guardian was essentially gone. Sure, Gakuhou was still his father, but there was a huge missing gap in between and all the relationship and trust had gone with it. It hurts to think that Gakuhou is essentially a stranger to his son but it's true.

The inverse also applies - Gakushuu is a stranger to him now. He's a nice boy, but Gakuhou doesn't know anything else about his personality. His likes, dislikes, how he changed as a person over a decade. It hurts a little to have lost all this progress. It's not going to help things any more of Gakuhou started to mistrust him, especially when he didn't have concrete basis for his thoughts.

If Gakushuu lied to him or anything, it must have been for a good reason. There's a lot to figure out and account for, and Gakushuu had said he would sort everything out.  His son was so capable. Gakuhou raised him well, didn't he? 

All the strangeness must be from the stress of it all. 

**Social Media Gakuhou doesn't know exist:**

**Facebook: 2004**

**Youtube: 2005**

**Twitter: 2006**

**Literally the rest of them**

**(I'm placing him in the early 2004s, so facebook probably existed but not popular enough to gain traction yet)**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so funny but I love that yall know the angst is coming. You all know me so well <3
> 
> Angst aside, how do you guys think this fic will go?


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys... the amount of amazing, high quality, beautiful, engaging, brilliant ongoing Gakushuu fics right now in this fandom... I'm crying. I love all of you.   
> Please... I implore of all of you... click "Asano Gakushuu" and just scroll down the tag... there's too many for me to link (and i'm tired rn)... they're all so good... thank you for the meal everyone
> 
> Anyways, back to this! Another short chapter.

**"I was kind of hoping that I would wake up and everything would go back to normal but it still looks like my dad is either playing the world's most terrible long game to embarrass me and himself or he's actually an amnesiac now and I have to learn how to file taxes or whatever it is that adults have to do," Gakushuu, annoyed**

Gakuhou wakes up bright and early in a room that's not his, and when he heads down to the kitchen, a fourteen year old Gakushuu is already busy in the kitchen.

"Oh," Gakuhou says. 

Gakushuu briefly glances at him. "I don't suppose you remember what you gave me for my last birthday."

"Uh, no," Gakuhou says. "What did I give you?"

Gakushuu doesn't answer the question. "I made breakfast," he says instead. "You like coffee."

"You know," Gakuhou says. Gakushuu slides a mug in front of him. 

"Our agenda for today is sorting out your affairs," Gakushuu says. "I'll go through your files with you although I'll preface it by saying that you don't tell me everything, so don't expect a full overview."

"That's alright," Gakuhou says. "Thank you for doing this."

Gakushuu frowns. "I can't exactly leave you to flounder around. Who would sign my indemnity forms and pay our taxes?" Gakuhou laughs. The kid is adorable.

Gakushuu chases him to his study and begins picking through the multitude of files with an excitement Gakuhou doesn’t quite understand, but it is really cute.

“I assume I kept these files confidential from you?” Gakuhou asks. He should probably be more concerned, except he doesn’t know what to be concerned about, and it’s not as if he can stop Gakushuu from tearing apart his office if he’s not sure what’s supposed to be kept secret.

Gakushuu hums an affirmative. He's knee deep in Kunugigaoka records. Gakuhou's computer is currently running what Gakushuu tells him is a password hacking software because Gakushuu doesn't know the password and Gakuhou obviously doesn't remember it. Gakuhou has - had - a wonderful memory so he hadn't needed a paper trail for most things but times like this (they had to call the bank to reset his accounts) Gakuhou wished he had a notebook to keep track of his personal affairs. He thinks he will begin writing things down.

"What are you looking for?" Gakuhou asks Gakushuu.

Gakushuu just shrugs. "I'll know it if I see it."

Gakuhou leaves him be. He takes the time to peruse through a photo album he'd found, which when he pulled it out he earned an odd face from Gakushuu, and as it turns out was full of pictures of him. 

It consists mostly of photographs taken from school events, from which Gakuhou learns that Gakushuu is a very intelligent boy. He's so proud! And now he's reading it silently to himself, because the fourth time Gakuhou had commented out loud about an award Gakushuu's won and Gakushuu had threatened to take the album away from him.

Gakushuu hears him flipping a page and looks up. He glances at the album in Gakuhou's hands, rolls his eyes, and then returns to whatever he was sorting through but with noticeably redder cheeks.

"There's nothing here," Gakushuu finally says, looking annoyed. "You must keep it at the school office."

"Keep what?" Gakuhou asks.

Gakushuu shrugs. He goes over to Gakuhou's laptop, taps a bit, and scowls. "My code's not working."

Gakuhou would offer to look at it, except that he has about 10 years of technology and programming knowledge to catch up on. Gakushuu currently knows far more than he does. 

Gakuhou's done with the photo album. He starts browsing through the multitude of files that Gakushuu has been methodologically pulling out and ripping apart, and a cursory glance tells them that they're just administrative documents for Kunugigaoka. Not that those weren't important, but Gakuhou will have plenty of time to read through those later.

He glances at his computer again. There's a loading bar on the screen.

"Whatever," Gakushuu mutters. "I'll check your school office. Let's just go through your…" he squints at a file, "financial statements."

Gakuhou's not surprised to hear that he's wealthy. He's also not surprised to hear that he's given his son a black card - Gakushuu seems like the responsible sort of kid that would handle that with care. What he is surprised to hear, however, is the amount of profit Kunugigaoka is generating.

"I don't know how you're pulling in millions a month," Gakushuu says, looking just as perplexed as he is. "I don't even- yeah, I don't know. I'll probably need your computers' files for that. You remember your password yet?"

Nope.

Gakuhou finds out what an ipad is. Neat.

"Come on, we have nothing to do here," Gakushuu says. "Lets just go to Kunugigaoka to pick up the files from your office." 

\--

On the way there, Gakushuu gives him a list of the staff. Obviously Gakuhou doesn't recognize any of them yet.

"You keep a… uh… very professional relationship with them," Gakushuu says. "In fact, you keep a professional relationship even with me. You don't want any form of bias when making decisions."

That makes sense.

Gakuhou nods politely to the security guard, who waves back with a confused look on his face. Gakushuu looks mildly haunted.

It's mid-afternoon now, Gakushuu tells him, so classes have ended for the day. There are many people up and about for their extra-curriculars.

"Do you have any?" Gakuhou asks. "Extra-curriculars, I mean."

"Oh," Gakushuu says. "Um. I play soccer?"

Gakuhou has pursued the album - he remembers Gakushuu with the basketball team and the Judo team as well. See, the thing is, Gakuhou may be a narcissist, but he's a self aware narcissist. He'd either somehow managed to raise the most humble child against all odds, or Gakushuu was hiding something from him.

They're down the hall - students give them wide berth but they still stare - when someone runs into Gakushuu. It's a tall boy with glasses. "Asano!" 

Gakuhou watches Gakushuu curiously.

"Araki," Gakushuu greets. "I'm not here for any work, I'm afraid. You must have heard the news. I'm just here to pick some things up."

"Oh," Araki says, glancing at Gakuhou. "Yeah. Uh…"

Gakushuu crosses his arms. "What is it."

Out of nowhere, Araki pulls out a camera.

Gakushuu says, "no."

Araki says, "you know you want it." And he waggles his eyebrows.

"What?" Gakuhou says, amused.

"Principal," Araki says to him. "You wouldn't mind taking some pictures, would you?" 

"You're really milking this for all it's worth," Gakushuu sighs.

"I'm in the school's broadcasting committee," Araki says. He holds up the camera again. "For promotional material."

That's funny. Gakuhou has no doubt that he's just trying to get pictures of Gakuhou when he's unguarded and out of character. 

Gakushuu makes a decision for him. "Absolutely not," he says, pulling Araki away and whispering in his ear. Araki listens and then grins, and gives Gakushuu a thumbs up before running away.

"Ignore him," Gakushuu says. "Everyone is just curious."

They make it all the way to the office without interruptions. Gakushuu begins starting up the computer and then looks through more documents. It's a very large and spacious office and there's a row of glass cabinets full of plaques and trophies. Gakuhou appreciates them, especially given that this school is less than a decade old.

"Why are your passwords so damn complicated?" Gakushuu mutters. He begins pulling out wires and unplugging the laptop.

They leave the office and then they're accosted by another student. A girl with glasses on, who nods at Gakuhou and then turns to Gakushuu and drops something into his hand.

"Thanks Chika," Gakushuu says.

"What's that?" Gakuhou asks.

Gakushuu waves something to him. "This is a flash drive."

"I know what a flash drive is," Gakuhou says.

Gakushuu makes a face. "It's code in the flash drive," he says. "It'd unlock your computer." He nods in the direction of the girl, who's already rounding the corner of the hallway. "That's my computer science club president."

"Ah," Gakuhou says.

**POV: You are Gakushuu. Do you tell Araki:**

**A. Get more candid shots, don't be so obvious about it, idiot**

**B. Send them to me**

**C. I'm not planning to let Dad know about the Kunugigaoka forum so you can post anything there**

**D. All of the above**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, just to set the timeline a little for no reason at all, no sir, read the next chapter without worry: this takes place shortly after the School Festival/Pole Toppling/Leader Time arc.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know what's coming

**You are a toothpick and trauma is a hydraulic press**

**-karmicMayhem**

They make it back to the house quickly. Gakushuu seems to be spurred by some sort of urgency and Gakuhou gets the distinct impression that he's supposed to be trying to stop Gakushuu from doing something, but he can't quite remember what it is. It must be the parental instinct. That, and he's rather curious to find out what exactly he's hiding from himself.

Gakushuu begins tapping enthusiastically at the computer. "I'm going to get my charger," he says, and hops away.

The office is still a mess - Gakuhou starts putting things back. The desk is already neat, as he would expect it to be, and there isn't much - oh, wait, a letter.

Curious, Gakuhou picks it up and turns it over. Oh, it's addressed to him, in Ikeda's handwriting. Gakuhou obviously doesn't remember reading it. He does wonder how Ikeda is doing right now. He would be in his twenties right now, right? Gakuhou wonders what he would be working as, maybe he would be playing basketball.

It doesn't seem like a new letter but if it was still on his desk, maybe he hadn't gotten round to reading it. Managing a school must be busy. Hopefully Ikeda hadn't been waiting too long for a reply.

Oh, it's already unsealed.

"To Sensei," Gakuhou reads, "hi, how have you been? I am…"

"..."

"..."

"..."

...Was…

...Was this some sort of joke?

This is… Ikeda's handwriting.

Is this some sort of fucking joke?

"Shit."

Gakuhou looks up. It's Gakushuu in the doorway, and he's staring at Gakuhou. He looks down to the letter in his hands.

Gakuhou opens his mouth. His throat is dry. "Gakushuu."

"I forgot about that," Gakushuu says. His voice cracks.

"Is this a joke?" Gakuhou repeats. Forgot? Forgot about what? "If this is a joke," his voice is raising higher without him intending it to, "it's not very funny-"

"I was trying to figure out how to tell you," Gakushuu says quickly. He's holding something in his hands, and he sets it down on the desk. He's in front of Gakuhou now, and Gakuhou looks at him.

Gakushuu looks worried. His bottom lip is trembling. 

Gakuhou feels something caught in his throat. He opens his mouth but nothing comes out.

"It's not a joke," Gakushuu says. 

"I…" Gakuhou looks around. He… I… 

This office is too crowded. There are too many files on the ground.

This is a joke. This must be.

How could Ikeda have killed himself?!

Gakushuu starts, stammering, "D-dad-"

"I need…" This can't be real. "...Some space."

Gakushuu takes a step back.

Gakuhou goes to the living room. When he looks down at the letter again he sees that his hands are trembling, and he's clutching it so hard it's creasing. He sets it down on the coffee table and smoothes it out.

Gakushuu places a cup next to him. Gakuhou takes it, it's warm. But his hands are shaking, so he puts it down again.

"I'm sorry," Gakushuu says.

"I…" Gakuhou shakes his head. He turns to the letter again, and unfolds it. And reads it over.

Ikeda killed himself.

Is this real?

None of this… no. Is this some joke? Some elaborate prank? How could he have amnesia? He remembers Ikeda, alive! They were in school together just yesterday! Gakushuu was four! He was four, not fourteen! Where was he?! This is some fucking joke!

Gakuhou jolts to his feet. “You!”

Gakushuu’s - or whoever this kid was - looks startled. His eyes were wide. “Dad-”

“Don’t call me that!” Gakuhou snaps. Gakushuu takes a step back. 

“Where am I?!”

“I t-told you,” Gakushuu says, “this isn’t-”

Gakuhou is angry. He’s pissed. There’s a newspaper on the table, it says 2014. There’s no logical explanation for this! That’s not possible! So what if his phone was… touchscreen? Whatever that was? How did that work anyways?!

“Tell me the truth,” Gakuhou snaps. 

“I am!” Gakushuu pleads. “Please listen to me! I know it’s scary and it doesn’t seem real but it is, I’m not trying to pull one over you.”

Gakuhou looks to his right. It’s the photo frame, one of them that Gakushuu put up. The ones he made up yesterday. Were those even real?!

He grabs one, the one he doesn’t recognize. It looks like a real photo. Gakushuu is older than four. A fake photo frame but a real photograph. 

What else is fake?

"There were never photographs on the mantle," Gakuhou says, and watches Gakushuu's expression grow increasingly panicked. "What else have you lied to me about?"

Gakushuu doesn't answer.

Gakuhou whirls on him again. "Gaku-" 

Gakushuu flinches, his hand flying up over his face. Gakuhou pauses. 

Gakuhou's heart skips a beat. He quickly puts the picture frame down.

Gakushuu's hands fall back to his sides, and he looks at Gakuhou almost like he's scared. 

Gakuhou gets the distinct impression that he's made a mistake.

Gakushu takes one step back, and then another, and then he's running up the stairs, and Gakuhou hears a door slam shut. He sits down hard on the sofa, and looks at his hands.

\--

Gakuhou doesn't know how long has passed, but it's dim out when he heads to the kitchen.

Gakushuu's been scarce all day. Gakuhou doesn't know if he can speak to him, but he has to ask him some questions.

He's read the letter over several times, and he's thought over what has happened today. He knows two main points:

Ikeda was bullied. He was bullied and he didn't fight back, because Gakuhou taught him to be the bigger person and he tried to live by that principle till the very end.

His relationship with Gakushuu is worse than he can imagine. Gakushuu had been nice to him and Gakuhou knows that's not how they normally interact at all. Gakuhou apparently makes a habit of hitting Gakushuu, enough for the poor kid to develop a reflex. Which. 

That's a lot to unpack.

Gakuhou doesn't know what to feel about the latter. What he wonders now is how exactly he handled the former. 

Clearly his teaching methods are wrong - they were molded for an idealized version of the world that they don't live in. There was no such thing as playing nice in the real world. He knew that, he fought tooth and nail for his own success and he didn't get this far by being _nice_ , what had foolishly compelled him to teach otherwise? He'd let Ikeda down.

But what were his next steps? He built a school and called it Kunugigaoka, but he knows next to nothing about the philosophy the school leads. He needs to find out from Gakushuu. 

Except… Gakuhou glances towards the stairs, deflating. He didn't seem to be a very good parent.

It's seven at night when Gakuhou walks up and knocks on Gakushuu's room door. "Gakushuu? I made dinner."

There's no response.

"Neither of us have eaten lunch," Gakuhou says.

There's a shuffle from behind the door, and Gakushuu emerges. His hair is messy and his eyes are red.

Gakuhou's chest twists.

He's selfish, he suddenly realizes, over the terrifyingly silent mea;. Gakushuu's hands tremble ever so slightly, and there are bags under his eyes. Gakuhou remembers the distressed look on his face when he saw the letter. 

It's not Gakuhou's loss alone, it's Gakushuu's as well. Ikeda must have been like an older brother to him, they used to spend so much time together back at the cram school. He must still be sad about it.

It's selfish, and he thinks it won't be the furthest conjecture if he tries to draw a line between Ikeda's death and Gakushuu's avoidance of him. Gakuhou has the advantage right now of seeing this laid out for him, but he doubts he would have been able to ten years ago, let alone help Gakushuu process his grief. 

"I need to ask you some questions," Gakuhou says, once they've cleaned up. They move to the living room.

The letter is there, folded back up and put back in its envelope. Gakuhou thinks he'll return it to its spot in the desk drawer later.

Gakushuu's hands are trembling and he sits on the far end of the couch from Gakuhou. Gakuhou frowns but he supposes he can't blame him.

First things first. "I'm sorry for yelling at you."

Gakushuu looks up, surprised. There's a hilarious irony in that. Gakuhou gives him a wry smile, "I don't suppose I apologize to you a lot."

"I…" Gakushuu seems to be contemplating something, then he shakes his head. "No."

Gakuhou sighs. Gakushuu's gaze flicks to the letter.

"Tell me everything," Gakuhou says. "This is the major thing you've been keeping from me but we're past that hurdle. I want to know everything about what has happened this past decade… including what I've done with regards to you."

Gakushuu looks conflicted.

"Don't sugarcoat it," Gakuhou says. Pauses. "Please."

\--

Gakushuu tells him things. His philosophy behind Kunugigaoka, the 3-E system, the legacy rising from Ikeda’s ashes. And the thing is, Gakuhou understands. It’s perfectly logical. It’s the principle of least harm done for the greater good. The way Gakushuu speaks of it, Gakuhou knows he also agrees. 

But there’s something else on Gakuhou’s mind.

“You, then,” he says, and Gakushuu startles.

“Me?”

“You’ve told me about Kunugigaoka,” Gakuhou says. “What about you?”

So many emotions flick across Gakushuu’s face at once, and finally Gakuhou can recognize all of them. He’s been seeing them through the days, but he hasn’t had the context to correctly label the feelings. Hurt, betrayal, confusion, anger, distrust, fear.

And then suddenly all the logic he saw behind the Kunugigaoka system - what the fuck was he thinking? - crumbles, because whatever he had done, however solid his rationale might have been, it was all wrong if it made Gakushuu look at him like this.

“I’m not going to be mad at you, you know that?” Gakuhou says, softly. And he raises a hand but he must have done it too quickly, because Gakushuu flinches. Then Gakuhou reaches forward as slowly as possible, murmuring apologies for scaring him, and starts stroking Gakushuu’s hair. 

"Do I hit you?"

Gakushuu clenches his teeth, and continues staring at the ground.

Gakuhou sighs. He already knows the answer to that one.

"You have so many achievements," Gakuhou says. Gakushuu stiffens. "You've done so much. Do I say it's not enough? Do I use your fear as a motivator? Do I hit you and tell you that I won't if you only do better?"

Gakushuu trembles.

"I already know what I'm thinking," Gakuhou murnurs. "I don't want you to become like Ikeda. I want you to be strong, be better - no, the best. That's why I push you so hard. Is that right?"

Gakushuu bows his head. He's shaking his head.

"Look at you," Gakuhou says. "You've done so much. But I haven't made you very strong at all, have I? All I did was break you into tiny tiny pieces."

Gakushuu's head snaps up this time, and his eyes are red, and he's angry. "How dare you," he hisses. 

"Gakushuu-"

"You don't even know what I've gone thr- you don't- you can't-"

"I just kept pushing you, didn't I? When you broke, I just taped you back together."

"I-I'm not b-b-broken-"

"I know, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

"I-I'm not-"

"You're so strong," Gakuhou says. "You're not broken, you're not weak. I am. I'm sorry. Gakushuu, I'm sorry."

And finally Gakushuu breaks down, and sobs, and Gakuhou hugs him. "What did I do to you?"

**Angst: we love to see it**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehehhe


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! 
> 
> How did everyone enjoy the previous chapter? ;) It was a bit of a long one and I posted the whole section because it went together, and now I'm wondering if I should have split it up into two chapters because of how long it turned out to be. But oh wells, it's posted. Hope you guys appreciated the lack of a cliffhanger for that one chapter

**You think your family has no more secrets but turns out the biggest secret is the one you're keeping from yourself**

Gakuhou's used to sleeping with Gakushuu next to him. The kid comes to his bed when he has a nightmare, pulling at the covers with one hand gripping a soft toy until Gakuhou picks him up. 

Gakuhou picks a guest room, because he doesn't want to sleep in his future self's bed today. Gakushuu is quietly sniffling, rubbing his eyes, hugging a pillow to his chest. He's brought the pillow over from his room.

It's a little odd, now that the kid is fourteen and not four. But Gakuhou appreciates it.

It's the weekend tomorrow so Gakuhou doesn't think about setting an alarm. They should sleep in - they deserve it. It's an emotionally exhausting day.

\--

Gakuhou wakes up first, slowly. Next to him, Gakushuu is snoozing away, his hair just a tuft barely poking out from under the covers. The sunlight is already streaming in from the windows, so Gakuhou positions a pillow over Gakushuu's face to block out the sunlight.

Gakuhou sighs, and lays back in the bed. 

This is all his fault and he hates it even more because he doesn't even know it. Gakushuu's been through so much under his hand and yet jumped in to immediately start taking care of him - he was a good kid. No wonder he was so awkward about everything. Gakuhou should get him a present. Maybe two presents.

Gakuhou gets his phone from the bedside from where it was charging last night. He's still getting used to it. His new standard password for all his devices was "Gakushuu" now because he could apparently forget everything in his life and he'll never forget his kid.

There's a noise at the window. Gakuhou looks up, and freezes.

There's a giant yellow face grinning back at him.

This is a dream. 

He closes his eyes.

Opens it again.

_ What the fuck _ .

A yellow slimy tentacle snakes out from underneath the windowsill. Curls into a ball. 

Knock, knock, knock.

Oh my god. 

That's the octopus super creature that blew up the moon.

At his window.

Gakuhou's holding his phone. He should call the cops.

The octopus can move at Mach 20. They'll be dead by then.

_ Knock, knock, knock _ .

What is happening.

Oh my god oh my god.

"Asano!" 

Oh my god, is it  _ speaking. _

It's mouth is not moving, frozen into a stretched grin.

It knows his name.

_ WHAT THE FUCK. _

"Asano! I'm coming in! I can't stay out here for too long or people will start to see me!"

What. 

This is…

What. Is Gakuhou's life.

What was he doing.

Why is he apparently on. Speaking terms. With. This.

"I heard you took a sick day so I decided to check on you!" It's still talking, it's mouth is not moving. It has so many tentacles. What kind of eldritch horror is this? 

"-not everyday our beloved Principal gets sick!-"

That thing is on his bedroom floor.

It's holding something.

"My," the octopus says in a perfectly normal voice, stopping at middle of the room. "Asano, you haven't said anything. Perhaps you lost your voice."

Gakuhou opens his mouth. He should say something, anything. Who are you? What are you doing in my house? Why are we friends? How much more unpredictable is his life?

He opens his mouth and instead what comes out, predictably, is a scream.

"AAAAHHHH! AAAAAHHHHH"

The octopus has the audacity to start flailing. "Why?! What's wrong?!"

_ "AAAAAAAAHHHH!!! AAAAAAHHHHH!" _

Gakushuu jolts awake. "What the- why are youaaAAAAHHHHH! AAAAAHHHHH!"

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

The three of them are yelling.

Gakuhou stops yelling first.

He grabs Gakushuu and claps his hand over his mouth. And shoves him back under the covers.

The octopus stops yelling.

They stare at each other. 

"Uh." Gakuhou says uselessly. "I have. Amnesia."

The octopus blinks its beady little eyes. It'a voice is deadpan, "what."

Gakushuu pops out. He's looking frantically between the octopus and Gakuhou.

"This better not be the _f_ _ucking_ secret of class 3-E."

The octopus looks between the both of them, and then is suddenly gone. 

Leaving what looks like a bag of takeout on the floor, and an open window.

"What the fuck was that," Gakuhou says.

Gakushuu looks at him. "I hate you."

\--

Not five seconds later Gakuhou gets a call. It's from a contact labelled Karasuma.

Gakushuu swipes the phone and answers it. He puts it on speaker.

"Principal Asano," a man on the other line says. "How have you been?" He sounds cordial, and sharp, and something tells Gakuhou he's calling about the octopus.

"Karasuma-sensei," Gakushuu cuts in. This is a teacher? From Kunugigaoka? Maybe not then-

"We just saw the octopus supercreature," Gakushuu continues. Oh, maybe yes then.

There's a pause on the other line. The man sounds uncertain now. "Gakushuu?"

"Yes," Gakushuu says. He turns to Gakuhou. "He's one of your staff. He works at 3-E."

The man's voice is sharp again. "Principal?"

"Yes," Gakuhou says.

Gakushuu is frowning. "Karasuma-sensei," he says. "Let's cut to the chase. There's a connection between you, the supercreature, and class 3-E. Three days ago my father suffered from a bad hit to the head and is currently having amnesia. Whatever deal that you have previously cut with him is void on sole principle that he doesn't know anything about it."

There's a much longer silence on the phone. And then the man says, "Understood. Mr Asano and Asano Junior, my name is Agent Karasuma Tadaomi of the Japanese Secret Service. From this moment on you both are fully aware of being involved in something top secret - please do not contact anyone. You may not remember it, Mr Asano, but we have you under a non-disclosure agreement. I understand that you are at your residence, my colleague and I will be there shortly."

The call cuts.

Gakuhou feels faint. He wants to go back to sleep and then wake up again, and see that this is all a dream.

He looks at his son. "Gakushuu?"

Gakushuu has his face buried in his hands. Very slowly he slides down back under the covers and starts burrowing in there.

**Gakuhou: It's been three days since I got here and I've been (metaphorically) punched in the face no less than 5 times**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is only one (1) plot twist in this whole fic.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is certainly going longer than I expected, I won't lie  
> It's nowhere near from being finished and yes, surprise, I do have the whole plot of the fic mapped out! I just haven't written it

**Gakuhou realizes he needs to interact with more people and that he made his own life a logistical hell**

Karasuma is a tall stern looking man. The blonde woman that steps out next to him in the car is a young girl that looks like she'd just stepped right out of college.

"They're your new hires for Kunugigaoka," Gakushuu says flatly. "She's Irina Jelavic, and she's supposed to be the 3-E language arts teacher."

"Hm," Gakuhou says. She doesn't look like a teacher.

Karasuma greets him with a nod. "Mr Asano."

They shake hands.

Gakushuu and Jelavic stare.

Gakuhou leads them to the sitting room and Gakushuu floats to the kitchen. "Tea?" He says pleasantly. He must be used to playing host. 

"Thank you," Jelavic says, flittery. She must be used to playing guest.

Gakushuu returns with tea, and a laptop. Gakuhou recognizes that it's his.

"You figured the password out?" Gakuhou says.

Gakushuu scowls. "It's 'Gakushuu' in Binary."

"Cute," Jelavic says.

"It was forty eight characters long."

Karasuma clears his throat. "If we may begin."

\--

Gakushuu slams his hands on the table. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"

Gakuhou has to agree. "What was I thinking?" He mutters to himself. He really agreed to essentially kill off an entire class of middle school kids, huh.

Jelavic giggles. Karasuma looks exasperated. 

"I found a document on your laptop," Gakushuu says. "It was heavily redacted. I couldn't make sense of it, but that's because none of this makes sense in the first place!"

And then he whirls on Gakuhou. "It's your fault!"

"Me!" Gakuhou says. Which, yes, but no! "It's my future self's fault!" He defends.

"Stop pushing the blame on yourself!" Gakushuu says. "Ugh! You knew about them and you- they've been undergoing military physical training and you expected- how were we supposed to win- your expectations!-"

Gakuhou doesn't understand, but the expressions on their faces tells him that Karasuma and Jelavic know what he's talking about.

Gakushuu has devolved from coherency and with a pissed huff, he stomps a foot and gets up from the couch.

Gakuhou frowns. He turns to his two colleagues. "What happened?"

"Sports festival," Jelavic supplies. She goes back to sipping her tea.

"Ah, there was a school sports festival shortly before you… lost your memory," Karasuma says. "Gakushuu must find it unfair. You probably put expectations on him to win, when you knew fully well it would be a team of supposedly regular students against professionally trained 3-E."

"Ah," Gakuhou says. That seems unfair.

"Your son still managed to get help," Karasuma offers. "He found some sport athletes from abroad to almost tipped the scale. He has impressive outsourcing skills." Pause. "They still lost."

"I guess add that to the laundry list of things I have to make up for," Gakuhou mutters. He hates himself, he really does. 

The two are giving him odd looks.

Gakuhou sighs. "I find out that I've been a… I'm doing a bad job as both a father and an educator."

"Oh yeah definitely," Jelavic says.

"Irina!" Karasuma scolds.

Gakuhou gives them wry looks. "Gakushuu's been sidestepping the matter this whole while. I don't suppose you can give me better insight on who I am - ah, used to be?"

Karasuma takes a deep breath.

Irina beats him to it. "I wanted to punch you in the face but I'm not going to lie - the bad bitch vibe made you super hot."

Karasuma whacks her with a couch pillow. "Irina!"

\--

The meeting with Koro (the supercreature octopus) goes as well as expected.

Koro is a funny character. He's endlessly apologetic about the scare, and he bows several times. He doesn’t seem like someone who would blow up the whole moon, but he did. Please don’t blow up the house. Or him and Gakushuu.

"This is the worst possible timeline," Gakushuu says flatly.

Gakuhou has to agree. 

"Are we friends?" He wonders aloud, because Koro had come to check up on him when he was sick with takeout, of all things. So surely they had a… cordial relationship that was slightly better than a strict professional one? Or maybe Koro was just a busybody, he certainly seems like the type to randomly barge into his colleagues houses if he thought he could get away with it - and being a superpower, there isn't much he _can't_ get away with.

That very moment Koro materializes next to him. Gakuhou isn't sure how he can tell that Koro is beaming, given that he already has an eternally frozen smile on his face, but he can. "Yes! We are the bestest of friends!" 

Ah. So not at all.

"I can't believe you agreed to this," Gakushuu says, for the fifth time that day. Gakuhou honestly can't believe it either.

\--

They spend the rest of the weekend being briefed about the situation and then again, signing more non-disclosures, and reading the contract terms at length. Gakuhou can’t believe how ridiculous this entire situation is, it seems straight out of a sci-fi television show. 

He understands this part, at least - because when an alien who  _ blew up the moon _ demands a teaching spot in the classroom or he will destroy the rest of Earth, you weren’t exactly in a position to say no. When the world’s Governments were peer-pressuring you to accept, you accept, or you get into a mysterious accident that may or may not be orchestrated by one of the many assassin contacts the government seems to have. 

He’s impressed with himself that he managed to get as big of a stake in this situation as he managed to, because there was really nothing stopping the higher authorities from forcibly repossessing the school for military use. It’s likely they didn’t want to deal with the legal and logistical hell he would raise and it was just easier to pay him off to shut him up every once in a while.

Which, it was a smart deal. 

Gakushuu tells him more about the school, now that the cat has been let out of the bag or so to speak. To summarize: Gakuhou is a dictator. 

That’s incredibly sad to hear. He likes to be in power, but does he want isolation on a pedestal? What he enjoys from teaching is educating the younger generation and the bonds he forms with his students - Ikeda, Mori, Nakai. He feels a personal sense of achievement when he knows he helped them succeed. Gakushuu tells him Mori and Nakai are still alive, Gakuhou thinks he’ll check in on them. 

Gakushuu gives him the directions to Ikeda’s columbarium, and Gakuhou thinks he won’t visit it anytime soon - he’s not ready, and also he thinks he needs to show his living son that he loves him and is here to stay before he checks up on the one that’s passed. 

“It’s incredibly sad, isn’t it?” Gakuhou says. “The E-Class system.”

“Oh,” Gakushuu says. “Yes. You’re bullying a bunch of fourteen year olds.”

Gakuhou shoots him a look. 

Gakushuu shrugs as if to say, is that not true?

Gakuhou sighs. "I will need to make major changes to the existing system."

Gakushuu tilts his head. "Seriously?"

"Of course," Gakuhou says. 

"You're not going to be able to change much," Gakushuu tells him, frowning. 

"Maybe not for the past cohorts," Gakuhou acquiesces. "But for the existing students and the future ones. They are children, there's still time to teach them different."

"Maybe," Gakuhuu says. He stares at Gakuhou, like he's trying to figure something out, but he glances away before Gakuhou can try to decipher what Gakushuu was looking for.

Gakuhou ruffles his hair. "I wish I could change how I reacted in the past and choose different. But I can't, so I want to do better."

Gakushuu nods. He stands up, says absently that now they cleared most things up he has schoolwork to catch up on, and then leaves Gakuhou to his own thoughts.

**Now that the truth is laid out the boys have more time to think about things and boy, they do spend a lot of time thinking about things.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you guess what they think about, I'll give you a point! The points don't really do anything but the more points you get, the closer you get to what I plan to do with this fic because we are far from done, baby!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have the hard part out of the way...

**Gakuhou has some thoughts, or: I've written many time displacement fics and the moral of the story is adjustment is never as easy as you wish it would be**

Then it's a Monday again, and Gakuhou is going to Kunugigaoka to act as a Principal. Gakushuu had declined a ride to school and opted to walk instead, saying he's used to it and he will meet up with that Sakakibara Ren along the way. 

Gakuhou can't tell if that's a lie (meeting Sakakibara) but he can tell that Gakushuu has slipped back to his reserved self. Their emotionally charged conversation two days ago had made Gakushuu display the type of raw vulnerability that even Gakuhou will hesitate showing to Gakushuu the other way round. Not because he thinks Gakushuu will betray his trust, but it was just that sort of personal issue - and so he doesn't begrudge Gakushuu from his sudden withdrawal, the kid needs his space and he's probably not used to Gakuhou being so, well, interactive with him. 

It's still a jarring change to have Gakushuu suddenly keep him at arm's length again, but what's one more behavioural switch in the grand scheme of things? He's experienced more plot twists in the past four days than most people ever would in their lives.

Gakuhou nods to the security guard again. The poor man looks like he might faint.

Gakushuu must have already arrived, but Gakuhou doesn't see him yet. Instead he takes the familiar path back up to his office, passing by multitudes of students who are giving him curious glances. He even sees that Araki boy, who does not approach him without Gakushuu to act as a foil.

The office is the same as when Gakuhou last entered it. With what he knows now, the empty space which he previously appreciated the minimalism of is now depressing. He should have gone to get a potted plant.

He sits down at his desk, and picks up a file. He was going to familiarize himself with the intricacies of Kunugigaoka before he figures out how to upend his own work - he doesn't feel any sort of emotional attachment to it, and he thinks flipping the script will feel more satisfying than anything. He should reaquaint the current staff with his condition… and he should stop by 3-E. He's curious to see if Koro is as good of a teacher as Gakushuu is describing 3-E's recent bout of success is. 

He passes the receptionist at the school general administrative office. "Hi…" He glances at her nameplate. "Sasaki."

Sasaki squeaks. "P-principal Asano," she says.

"I'm sure you've heard the news," he says.

"A-ah," Sasaki says. "It's true, then?"

Gakuhou nods. "Gakushuu has enlightened me on some interesting things over the weekend."

"Oh my," Sasakj says, a hand over her mouth.

Gakuhou raises an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"You don't, ah, usually call him by his. First name."

Well. That was sad.

"There are going to be changes in the recent future," Gakuhou tells her. "I want to get a full staff meeting."

"A full meeting?" Sasaki adjusts her glasses. "Hachiho and Tanabe are on a training course and they won't be back until next Wednesday."

"After that, then," Gakuhou says. 

"I've reassigned all your upcoming meetings to the vice-dean until further notice," she tells him. 

"Good," Gakuhou says. "Thank you."

She looks surprised. Does he not thank her enough? Jesus. He should give her a raise.

\--

There are three short knocks on the door.

"Come in," Gakuhou says.

The door opens and then Gakushuu strides in. "School's out for the day."

It is? He must be more engrossed in his reading than he thought.

"I planned to drop by the 3-E classroom today," Gakuhou says. "Would you like to come with?"

Gakushuu tilts his head. "Me? No thanks. As satisfying as it would be to see the looks om 3-E's faces, I think it will be more satisfying to hold it out on them until another time."

Gakuhou laughs. "If you're sure."

He walks up the hill that his classroom - old classroom sits on. But he steps onto the path and walks up the dirt road, he realizes how different it feels. The slope is smoothed and worn down by years and years of Gakuhou walking over it, years and years he doesn't remember. The trees have grown taller, low hanging branches he used to have to dodge on the way up now high in the canopy. And he walks halfway up the hill and he realizes the scenery has changed so much he doesn't even recognize the route anymore.

It's been ten whole years.

And he stands at the edge of the forest watching from the treeline he doesn't remember, the classroom he built which was no longer his. He made the decision to let go of the emotional significance this classroom had to him and alienate it in such an extreme manner… but he doesn't even remember that happening. What he remembers is him and Gakushuu here, Ikeda and Mori and Nakai laughing as they run circles in the field, Gakushuu blowing little dandelions, on his short toddler legs running around and crashing into trees.

And 3-E is here, sitting in the room, and Gakuhou can see them through the window. There didn't use to be so many chairs in his classroom…

...except this wasn't his classroom anymore.

Gakuhou turns around and walks back down the hill.

**The more things change, the more things stay the same,**

**and the more things stay the same, the more they don't**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...and so begins the slow descent into time-jetlag
> 
> Imagine one day you woke up, and forgot the past 10 years of your life?


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody! Did you miss me for a day?

**Prank: Move everything in your house an inch to the right and watch everyone else bump into things without knowing why**

Gakushuu is already there when Gakuhou gets back to the house. His shoes are by the door.

The living room is as bare as it is, no toys on the floor or crayons on the carpet, and there are photographs that shouldn't yet exist on the mantle.

Gakuhou hates that he doesn't like looking at them. He doesn't remember a thing about any of the memories he should have made.

Gakuhou had dropped by the supermarket on the way to work. It's something he always did twice a week, but when he opens the refrigerator today, it's already fully stocked.

So this was one of the chores that Gakushuu did. He'll have to… remember that.

Gakuhou considers himself an adaptable person, but losing 10 years was not the kind of change he think even he can adjust to very easily.

It's been a grand total of five days in the future. 

Gakushuu comes down for dinner busy tapping away at his ipad. He nods vaguely in Gakuhou's direction and goes back to it. Gakuhou's not sure if he should start a conversation - Gakushuu seems busy. 

Gakushuu doesn't seem bothered by the silence. This must be a regular occurrence? Although they've had dinner the past four days in animated discussion, the first two days surrounding the logistics of his memory loss and the latter two about Koro and the Class 3-E situation.

Gakushuu's gaze flicks to him. "What's wrong?"

"You seem busy," Gakuhou says.

"Hm? Yeah," Gakushuu says. "I have council duty, and finals are coming up soon." He looks back down at his tablet. Tap, tap, tap.

He's happy that Gakushuu is a diligent go-getter. He's sad that now the immediate anxiety and emotional distress of the initial situation has died down, Gakushuu doesn't seem to have much of an interest in their relationship - and they don't have much of a relationship to begin with.

The thing is, at this stage, Gakuhou's life is Gakushuu. When he wakes up he checks on the kid, and then feeds him, and they do some housework together. Then they go to school, and Gakuhou feeds him lunch, and after school Gakuhou sometimes takes him to the mall or the supermarket or they go home and he teaches Gakushuu how to do his homework. The point is, (and he sounds like a parent of an adult who's getting married in a week when he says this,) Gakushuu has a whole life without him now. Gakuhou doesn't keep tabs on him and he doesn't know where the kid is going or what he's eating and he's simply supposed to go about his day alone and then come home and trust that Gakushuu is still healthy and alive? And keep doing that???

He doesn't have the years in between to prepare him for this! He skipped all the buildup and went straight to the climax and has no context for any of this!

Gakushuu glares at him so hard Gakuhou jolts in alarm.

"I can feel you thinking," Gakushuu says.

"But what is the plot?" Gakuhou blurts.

Gakushuu blinks, and doesn't say anything, and then goes back down to his food.

\--

Gakushuu disappears into his room again. Gakuhou wonders what his room looks like. Would it be weird to knock? It seems like it would be. Gakushuu seems like a very private kid, he probably wouldn't appreciate it.

Gakuhou knocks anyways.

Gakushuu peeks out. He looks disgruntled. "Hi?" He says anyways, his voice immediately smoothing out and his smile deceivingly pleasant.

"Hello," Gakuhou says. "Would you like some fruit?" He holds up a plate.

Gakushuu stares at it for a beat, and then opens the door wider. 

Gakuhou glances around the room. There is a shelf full of books, and a preliminary assessment shows that it's mostly academic text. The bed is neatly made and the desk is clear, save for some notes and an open laptop. There's a closet and a cupboard. The rest of the room is…

...depressingly minimalist, the same way Gakuhou's office at school and the rest of this house is. No personal artifacts, no pictures, no… home. Just a room straight out of a show display.

Gakuhou looks down. Gakushuu is raising an eyebrow at him.

Gakuhou opens his mouth, and closes it again.

Gakushuu raises a finger and presses it to his own cheek. "See this?" 

Gakuhou says, "um."

Then Gakushuu tilts his head and smiles, he bats his lashes and his eyes brighten, a dimple pops out at the side of his mouth, and the little indent his finger is leaving makes the round part of his cheeks look rounder.

And then suddenly the hand drops and Gakushuu tilts his head the other way, the smile falls into a flat line and his eyes snap into judgement. 

Gakuhou removes his hand from the doorf rame.

"Thanks, dad," Gakushuu says, now smiling again, taking the plate of fruit from him, and Gakuhou imagines him slicing into a birthday cake with the same expression.

"I never got you anything for last year's birthday," Gakuhou says.

Gakushuu laughs. "You didn't," he says, Gakuhou takes a step back, and the door closes between them.

**Gakushuu: I can display the entire human range of emotion on command.**

**Ren: ...can you do that naturally?**

**Gakushuu: No.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's funny how Gakushuu gets his power because he has many friends and Gakuhou is in power because he has none. When Gakushuu needs something done he outsources his help from other people (the international exchange students for Bo-tashi, his performer friends for the school festival, 3-E for Finals), but people don't work for Gakuhou because they like the guy. They do things because he brainwashes them, terrifies them half to death, or sues them for millions otherwise.
> 
> Gakuhou: I don't need friends, they disappoint me


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I actually have a midterm tomorrow and another in three days and I decided to write this chapter instead. <3

**Gakuhou has to deal with pesky things like emotion, and unlike his counterpart he talks about his problems instead of avoiding them**

It's late at night and Gakuhou knows Gakushuu is still awake. The light under his room door is still open and Gakuhou wonders what he's still doing.

He's made it a third through the first quarter of Kunugigaoka's administrative folders. He was very meticulous at record keeping.

Gakuhou opens up his phone and goes back to the gallery. He goes all the way to the beginning.

Gakushuu is four years old, and then the timestamps of the pictures change until he's five, and then there's an abrupt cut in the timeline and the subsequent picture is Gakushuu aged ten. Gakuhou feels like he's missing that bulk of memory and then more, and he doesn't even have a paper trail for that.

He misses his four year old.

There. He misses the four year old Gakushuu. He's been trying not to think it. He could distract himself with the novelty of the situation or the strange happenings of it all but now the world is momentarily silent in the dead of night and he's thinking about it.

And his students, too. He misses Ikeda and Mori and Nakai. That was so unfair, he doesn't remember them. All the time they could have spent is gone and now even the memories are taken away from him. He's made mistakes and he doesn't even know what they are.

He didn't know how to handle the fourteen year old and it was evident the fourteen year old didn't know how to handle him either. 

He didn't want to think it, but this Gakushuu was not the son he missed, the same way that Gakuhou wasn't his father. 

\--

It's day six in the rest of his life and Gakushuu is cheerily flouncing around the kitchen. Gakuhou watches him.

"It feels like just yesterday I was the one who had to do all the cooking," Gakuhou comments quietly.

Gakushuu looks up from the frying pan. "You taught me to cook."

"Did I," Gakuhou says. But of course he did, who else would be teaching Gakushuu?

"You're a skilled teacher," Gakushuu says. "I wish you taught less."

They have breakfast and then head to Kunugigaoka separately, Gakuhou by car and Gakushuu on foot. Then Gakuhou greets the security guard, and the staff as he passes them, and walks to his office. Then sits down and opens the Kunugigaoka administrative folders and begins to read.

Then it's lunchtime, but he doesn't feel hungry yet. Still, he ambles to the cafeteria and buys a takeaway cup of coffee. The students are out and about, and they look shocked to see him. One of the students attempts a wave, and amused, Gakuhou waves back.

The student runs.

Gakushuu comes up to him.

"I suppose this must be out of character for me," Gakuhou says.

"Mhm," Gakushuu hums. He eyes Gakuhou's coffee with a judgemental expression and then flutters off again. Gakuhou watches him join a table of boisterous students, and he recognizes Ren Sakakibara and Araki among them.

Gakuhou takes a sip. Hm. Maybe he should have taken a thermos from home instead.

He glances over at Gakushuu again, who's now staring back. His table has quietened and the students are now agitatedly whispering amongst one another, avoiding his gaze. Maybe Gakuhou shouldn't be standing in the middle of the school cafeteria looking at a table of kids. 

He goes back to his office. Two hours pass, he's through another section, and then the school bell rings to signal the end of the day. Gakuhou wonders if he should make the trip up to the 3-E class today-

There's a notification on his phone. It's a text from Gakushuu, "I'll be out for dinner today. Don't wait up for me."

\--

Gakuhou has thawed out enough meat for one adult and one toddler that he's already on the rice when he realizes what he's doing. The portion sizes weren't even big enough for Gakushuu as he currently is.

He eats it all, because he doesn’t want to see any leftovers, but then he feels uncomfortably full. And then he sits in the living room until Gakushuu comes home.

“You’re out late,” Gakuhou says. It’s almost midnight. He can’t say that Gakushuu has been out later than usual because he doesn’t know. Is this behaviour normally acceptable, or is Gakushuu just taking advantage of this? Should Gakuhou be worried? - Well, he is, but should he be?

Gakushuu looks at him. “You’re up late.” 

Gakuhou sighs. That’s a lie. “I have never once slept before midnight and you know it.”

A smile twitches at the edge of Gakushuu’s lips. He sits down next to Gakuhou on the couch, hands folded on his lap. “I’m allowed to go out by myself. I’m a big boy now.” He tilts his head. “You don’t have a frame of reference for anything, so you’ll have to take my word for it, but I won’t lie to you about such menial things.”

Gakuhou rubs the bridge of his nose. “So you’ll lie about other things.”

“You’re making this harder for yourself.”

“I know,” Gakuhou sighs. “But it has to be done, doesn’t it? I’m not going to fall back to normalcy anytime soon, and you’re not going to stop lying to me because I beat it into you.”

Gakushuu winces. “You don’t deserve this. You don’t know what you did.”

“I’ve been sabotaged by myself,” Gakuhou says. “If I could go back and change things-”

“You can’t,” Gakushuu says. “It’s done.”

“I wish I could.”

“Well, we have to live with what we’ve got,” Gakushuu says firmly. “Even if it’s this.”

“What if you never get him back?”

“We can’t say never-”

“Stop avoiding the question,” Gakuhou says, and Gakushuu glares at him sharply before looking away. It must be a reflex. Gakuhou says, gentler, “we’ve been walking on eggshells around each other. I’ll be honest, I’m devastated I lost all that time with you. What do you feel?”

“I lost time with you, too,” Gakushuu murmurs. He turns to the side. “You don’t remember a thing. I know you’re not, but,” he closes his eyes, “it feels like I’m living with a stranger. God.”

“Even after all he’s done to you…” It’s weird to speak of himself as a third person, but Gakuhou doesn’t want to say  _ me _ . 

Gakushuu looks at him. “I never liked my father and I wished he treated me differently. It was abuse, that’s what it was,” (Gakuhou winces), “and maybe I’m petty and vengeful, but it was pain we went through together. I don’t think it’s fair that you got hurt and you hurt me but I’m the only one who remembers it. That you get off scar-free and I’m the one who has to remember it for both of us. I’m selfish, and I shouldn’t want you to go through what was apparently so traumatic that made you snap like a toothpick in a hydraulic press… but I do.”

Gakuhou opens his mouth, but no words come out.

“And it means nothing,” Gakushuu continues, “if you are the one who says…” he waves a hand in the air, “all of this! It means nothing to me! It’s like if I got punched in the face by a kid and another classmate says sorry on his behalf to me - that apology means nothing! I don’t want you to start off a blank slate and do better. I want you to reflect on everything you’ve done and then decide, despite all that, to do better, by both of us.”

Gakushuu stands up. “Look, you’re still family, alright? Just like… an estranged uncle I haven’t seen in a decade more than a father right now.”

They stare at each other for a few moments.

“I miss you,” Gakuhou says. “The one I remember. The same sentiment applies.”

Gakushuu smiles a little. “Was I a cute kid?”

“The cutest,” Gakuhou says.

“We need to sit down and figure out where this means for our relationship,” Gakushuu says. “We can do that tomorrow. I’m tired.”

“Sure,” Gakuhou says. 

“Nights, Dad-Uncle,” Gakushuu says, pauses. “Duncle.”

Gakuhou says, “sonphew.”

Gakushuu snickers. “You’re fucking weird. I can’t see you as my dad because you talk like you’re in your twenties.”

Gakuhou wrinkles his nose. “I’m thirty two.”

“You’re a father of a four year old, that’s what you are,” Gakushuu says, and points an accusing finger at him. “You asked me if I ate my num-nums yesterday and if I needed help in the b-a-th-r-oo-m. Yeah, that’s right, I heard it.”

“When I see a closed toilet door you could have very well locked yourself in and fallen down in there!”

"I didn't know I was this ineffectual as a four year old."

"You still needed a step-stool to reach the sink."

**You know how some couples who have been dating for forever don't get married and they live life peacefully that way, and how some married couples divorce and then become happier together, and how some adopted kids get along with their parents better if they're not forced to call them Mom/Dad?**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I was nice, this would be where this story ends.
> 
> (Also, thanks for karmicMayhem again for your "toothpick in a hydraulic press" analogy kljhk it is HILARIOUS)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! My exams are finally over, Ricochet is finally being updated, and boy, you guys are going to absolutely hate me <3
> 
> Me, swivelling around in my chair: So. You've noticed the updated tags and summary. Let's begin.

**Gakuhou breaks the fourth wall and assassinates me through the computer screen**

Gakuhou wakes up.

Where is he? He was in his office. What-

He's in the 3-E classroom.

No, he's not.

He's on the classroom on top of the hill behind the Kunugigaoka campus, but something is off.

Isn't it school hours? Where are-

"Papa?"

What. 

Is that-

"Papa?"

A child's hand comes close.

Gakuhou smacks it away.

The child jumps.

The child has blond hair, violet eyes, and looks strikingly familiar.

That's Gakushuu Asano, as a toddler.

Is this a fucking joke? 

Gakuhou quickly gets to his feet. His head swims a little. God, it hurts. 

That’s it. He’s going to kill the octopus once and for all-

Is this 3-E? It wasn’t the classroom he remembered. There isn't a supercomputer in the back, for one, what did they call it? Ritsu?

The furniture is old. The desk models are from years ago. Why-

“Papa?”

Toddler Gakushuu Asano is here.

Gakuhou stares at him. “How old are you?”

“Four.”

Four. Four. This is insane. He’s going insane.

Gakuhou heads over to the teacher’s desk and throws the drawer open. The octopus would have tons of snacks stashed in there, but it’s empty now. No, there’s a pile of papers. They’re worksheets. 

They’re not 3-E’s worksheets.

The names on the top… Mori, Nakai, Ikeda…

This is a fucking joke.

“I’m going to kill him,” Gakuhou seethes. Whatever the octopus was playing at - no! There was no way the octopus would have known. Only one person would have an intimate recollection of the old classroom. Gakushuu! Gakuhou was going to throttle the kid, and then-

“Sorry Sensei! I left my bag here and-”

Fuck, WHAT?!

Ikeda - what is going on?! - is standing at the door, one hand on the doorframe, and he’s staring at Gakuhou like he’s seen a ghost - yes! Yes, exactly! What-

“Uh,” Not-Ikeda says, “I’m just gonna,” he’s walking to a table, that’s where he used to sit, there’s a bag there how did Gakuhou miss it, it’s exactly what Ikeda’s bag used to look like-

“Is Gakushuu okay?” Not-Ikeda says.

No. Gakushuu is not okay. Gakuhou is going to murder him, and then bring him back to life, and then murder him again-

-Oh, the four year old?

Gakuhou looks down. The kid is sniffling. He’s in one piece, he’s fine.

He looks up. “What is going on.”

Not-Ikeda has wide eyes. Whoever this person is, they’re a great actor, they’re following Ikeda to the letter, “uh, what?”

The worksheets. The desks.

Gakuhou puts his hands into his pocket and pulls out a…

...that is not his phone.

Did they even make these anymore? What is Nokia even doing right now?

He looks at Not-Ikeda again. “Tell me what year it is.”

“...2004,” Not-Ikeda says. “Are you okay, Sensei?”

He’s committed to the skit. Fine. “Describe everything that happened today.”

“Uh…” Not-Ikeda looks nervous. He should be. Gakuhou was going to put him through the wringer and then, need he reiterate, ground Gakushuu for the rest of his life. 

Not-Ikeda opens his mouth, and begins to talk about a normal school day. Gakuhou doesn’t have a frame of reference for it. He doesn't even remember what a normal school day would have been like for Ikeda - that was ten years ago, the kid could be pulling it out of his ass for all he knows.

“Whatever,” he snaps. “Shut up.” And he storms out of the classroom and heads down the hill. Is this Nokia even working? Either the reception is shitty or Gakushuu is ignoring his calls. If that little brat has so much time to pull this bullshit and he still lost to 3-E then he better be-

Where is Kunugigaoka?

\--

“I can’t believe it.” Gakuhou is losing his mind. “I’m actually in 2004.” His car is different. His school doesn’t exist. The electronics brand Apple didn’t exist, the first black matter research breakthroughs haven’t been published, the moon - the fucking moon - was still a round rock, Hurricane Katrina hasn’t hit, he’s somehow  _ regressed ten years in the past _ .

The goddamn Nokia is so clunky to use, the internet took forever. The plot of land that Kunugigaoka is supposed to occupy is now the flat field next to the hill. There are some shops there. Gakuhou remembers them. He looks at himself in the reflection of a storefront window and… he’s young. Younger than he ever looks, almost as if he really de-aged.

What is going on?

Either he somehow time travelled into the past, or he’d never lived that ten years and… what? Dreamt it all up? That’s ridiculous!

...Is it?

He has to find proof that it was real. If he finds proof, then he’ll know it wasn’t all part of his imagination. He doesn’t know what he’ll do yet when he does, because  _ what the fuck _ , but he’ll take it one step at a time before he figures everything out. He’ll record down everything he remembers will happen so he can fact-check and extrapolate it.

Politics. World incidents. The people he knows. Ikeda is alive, and his son is-

-oh fuck.

Gakuhou runs back up the hill and throws the classroom door off its hinges. “Gakushuu!”

Ikeda is there. He shrieks.

Gakushuu is there too. He bursts into tears.

“Sensei!” Ikeda says, quickly standing up. He bounces Gakushuu on an arm, fussing at him.

Okay, this is real. For whatever reason, Gakuhou is now in the past, and Ikeda is alive. 

“Hope it’s okay I stayed for a bit,” Ikeda is saying. “I didn’t want to leave Gakushuu alone.”

God. “Yeah, good,” Gakuhou says. He runs a hand through his hair - his fringe is falling in front of his eyes. He hasn’t let his hair down since… 

What is happening? Why is he here? Is this some sort of concussion dream? He needs to figure things out...

“Go home,” Gakuhou says.

Ikeda slowly sets Gakushuu down. “Uh, okay. See you tomorrow?”

Gakushuu is sniffling. Ugh, he’s four.

**You wish I will stop writing fics, I only have one (1) trope I will ever write, every single little time travel reference I put in the past chapters are for Both comedic effect and plot purposes, and also I hit Gakuhou with a brick**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All your past comments...  
> I know. I've read them. I love them, I love you, and yes I was laughing all through reading it.
> 
>  **Frequently Asked Questions**  
>  Q: Was this ever meant to be an amnesia fic?  
> A: No ❤️ 
> 
> HAHA ok but honestly I had tons of fun writing an "amnesia" fic? I ended up exploring the issues around memory loss more than I thought I would, and ngl I'd be interested in writing a pure memory loss fic some other time - you guys had great reception HAHA I'm sorry for disappointing everyone 


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, again! How did you like the last chapter?  
> I'm getting more experimental with my fics as of late, I think. I have a big one lined up that I'm pretty excited about but I doubt I'll finish writing it anytime soon HAHA.

**10 steps on how to take care of a toddler - with pictures**

**Gakuhou needs to use wikihow except that it doesn't exist yet (2005)**

“What the hell do kids eat? Bread? Do you eat bread? Gakushuu do you want bread?”

Gakushuu is sniffling. He hasn’t stopped being teary. Gakuhou has forgotten how annoying the toddler stage is.

The kid is sitting on the counter, because there’s no other surface high enough to place him and Gakuhou sure wasn’t going to bend down to talk to someone who came up to his knees, and Gakushuu refuses to speak up for some reason, Gakuhou feels like a giraffe trying to communicate with a chipmunk. 

Where is grown-up Gakushuu when you needed him? Someone who would answer him when asked a question? “Do you want bread or not?”

Little Gakushuu nods.

Gakuhou sighs. He stares at the kid, who stares back.

Gakushuu had such violet eyes. Gakuhou had the same eyes. They looked so alike. Did Gakuhou look anything like him as a child? Did he have any of his baby photos left? He was so  _ tiny _ . Gakushuu hadn't been this tiny in years. Gakuhou can’t believe he managed to make - or make half of - such a tiny person, that would grow up to be an insufferable prat.

Gakuhou makes a quick dinner with a few sandwiches, and watches Gakushuu try to eat it. It's very funny and dare he say, adorable, and the regular sized pieces of bread were very large in his small hands. 

Then after dinner Gakuhou can't tell Gakushuu to do the dishes so he has to do it himself, and then Gakushuu says he has to use the bathroom and Gakuhou wonders why he's telling him this until he remembers that he has to help Gakushuu use the bathroom, and holy shit a four year old is so much work.

Gakuhou watches Gakushuu scamper to his room and, curious, he peers. The room has changed so much since - oh!

"Hello, Tubs," Gakuhou says. There's a ratty plush tiger sitting at the edge of Gakushuu's bed. Gakuhou hadn't seen it in a long time, he figured Gakushuu had thrown it out sometime when he was ten. And about time too, because he was getting too old for toys like that. How nostalgic to see it back again.

"Tubs!" Little Gakushuu parrots. 

Gakuhou nods at him. "I trust you'll go to bed in a timely manner. I have matters to attend to, I'll be in my office."

He leaves Gakushuu to his own devices and goes to his office. It's emptier than he remembers, the space not as neat as he is used to it being, the shelves not yet full with the files he had not yet accumulated in the next ten years. He clears the desk and boots up his old laptop.

It takes Gakuhou an embarrassing three tries to figure out the password and even then it's ridiculously simple, so he promptly changes it to something suitable. Then he begins research.

He remembers the resumes of the employees he has yet to hire, and he knows what they are supposed to be doing at this time. He finds his staff in various stages at their career paths, two of them still in graduate school. It matches up to the timeline. That's a promising sign that contributes to the hypothesis that… he didn't make up the next ten years in a fever dream? He's psychic or he time travelled? What?

He can't exactly check for world events that haven't happened yet, so he types them all out, and then he isn't sure what to do next.

God. What is happening?

\--

“Why is the kitchen in such a mess?!” 

It's the next morning. Gakuhou is annoyed. He doesn’t need to handle unnecessary cleanup on top of his already growing headache. “You should know better than this, Asano, how many times have I told you to-”

Wait.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Gakushuu is four.

Gakuhou rubs his temples, and turns to the doorway. Gakushuu is hiding behind the door frame, and he looks like he’s about to cry. Gakuhou hopes he won’t, because he cannot deal with a kid crying right now.

Sigh. He’s four. Keep it together.

Gakuhou gets down on a knee. “Come here.”

The kid totters over to him.

Gakuhou looks him level in the eye. “We clean up after ourselves, okay?”

Gakushuu nods. His eyes are wide, and he’s chewing on his bottom lip. “I… tried…”

One of the chairs has been dragged all the way to the counter, where there’s an open bread bag, a spill of water, and an overturned glass.

Gakuhou looks at Gakushuu again. “Are you hungry?”

Gakushuu nods.

“Why didn’t you get me?”

“...you were busy.”

Gakuhou sighs. He’s going to have to set some reminders and adjust his routine now that he can’t leave Gakushuu to his own devices. “Next time, just look for me if you need anything, even if I’m busy. I won’t fault you for your bodily functions.”

Gakushuu nods, again.

“Come on, let’s get you something to eat.”

\--

They make it to the cram school late, because Gakuhou had forgotten all the intricacies of dealing with a four year old. He keeps telling himself that the kid is four now, and he’s having otherworldly unrealistic expectations, but Gakushuu took five minutes to try and tie his shoe, and it was all Gakuhou could do to not just leave him behind.

Ikeda, Nakai and Mori startle when Gakuhou stalks in. They’re almost twenty minutes late. 

“He-ey, Sensei,” Ikeda greets warily.

Gakuhou looks at him, eyebrows knitted. This is… he could do this. He could deal with this.

Gakuhou frowns at the chalkboard. “Okay, what were we doing yesterday?”

“Huh?” Nakai says.

“Yesterday. What were we doing?” Gakuhou repeats. 

Mori rifles through his textbook. "Um… we were on this page."

Yeah. He could do that. 

He glances at the screen door. Gakushuu seemed to know what to do when they got here, already heading for a little table with his tiny backpack when Gakuhou set him down. Good of the kid to take initiative because Gakuhou doesn't remember what direction he's supposed to give.

"Uh, Sensei?" Ikeda says, raising a shaky hand. "You, uh, you are going too fast."

Going too fast? No he wasn't. Gakushuu always- dammit. Breathe in, breathe out. 

"Do you not understand the material?" Gakuhou says, tapping the chalk against the board.

"We, uh, do," Mori mumbles, "but it makes our heads hurt."

Fine, fine. "Fine," Gakuhou says. "In that case, I'll give you some time to review the material. I'll be back shortly."

He heads out. He walks past Gakushuu, busily scribbling away, and then he walks all the way down to the base of the hill and then stares at the empty plot of land where Kunugigaoka used to- or would be. 

He wasn't going insane, was he? Was he?

**Existential crisis mode activated**

**Imagine you were reincarnated as a baby and you had all your memories intact, except God didn't give you a warning beforehand so you were just like That**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to thank skyestar7703 for *drumroll* Tubs! I'm borrowing the little cutie for a bit.   
> Tubs the Tiger has debuted in her fic, [Retrospection](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26523127), and you should definitely give it a go. (Tubs hasn't been mentioned by name there yet, but I already love him.)
> 
> Concept: Isogai/Gakushuu  
> Isogai: Can you please stop introducing yourself as my sugar daddy  
> Gakushuu: You could have been mine if you didn't give the government back their billion dollars  
> Isogai: Listen,


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tubs the tiger makes his return! (Do check out Skyestar7703's fic for more [Tubs content!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26523127))

**Imagine playing a game and you've clocked 300 hours on it, but that one recurring save file you use gets corrupted**

Gakushuu is not in the empty classroom adjacent when he gets back. He's in the main one, chatting to the three students, but they all jolt to attention when Gakuhou walks in. 

"Are you all done with your work."

"Um," Ikeda starts, but Gakushuu cuts in.

"I was hungry!"

Gakuhou glances at his watch. Ah, it's half past noon. He must have been lost in his thoughts longer than he imagined. 

"Yeah, okay," Gakuhou says. He could do this. Gakushuu ate a sandwich yesterday, another sandwich for breakfast today. What else did toddlers eat? 

There's nothing in the pantry. "Cereal? Gakushuu, do you eat cereal? What about coffee?" Gakushuu loves coffee. You couldn't start them too early, right?

"You didn't prepare lunch for him today, Sensei?" Nakai says. The three have their own bento boxes from home. Is that what Gakuhou was supposed to do?

"He-ey Sensei! I have a great idea," Ikeda says. "Why don't we, uh, take Gakushuu out for lunch today?"

"Good idea," Gakuhou says. "You do that." He needs to plan a daily routine. He has to go grocery shopping now, Gakushuu can't do that for him. He has to make three meals a day, he can't feed a toddler takeout. He also has to review his lesson plans, and slow down or something. And-

"You're not coming with us, Sensei?"

Gakuhou waves them away. "Just buy me something."

"Okay," Nakai says. There's a soft click on the door and they are gone, giving Gakuhou a window of time with his thoughts to himself. 

He sighs. This was exhausting. He missed the teenager already. He was a good conversational partner, he knew how to take care of himself, and he didn't complain if his lessons were  _ too fast _ .

He's officially two days in the past and it's not some dream sequence, either that or he's in a coma. Which he can't decide if it's preferable, because if he wakes up from a coma and find out that Gakushuu is two or something he might just have to check himself into a psychiatric hospital.

And Ikeda was still alive. Was he fated to die, or could Gakuhou stop it? Ikeda was also the driving force for the latter part of Gakuhou's decisions, so what would happen to Kunugigaoka, or Gakushuu? Would he still be moving forward with that?

Slowly, because there was no one in the room with him, Gakuhou lets his head slowly slide from his hands and rest on the desk.

Maybe he's dead and this is hell.

\--

The rest of the school day is a blur and then Gakuhou is at his house again. He hadn't stopped yesterday to take everything in because it was as familiar as he remembered it, but now he lets himself examine the living room. There are a row of photographs on the mantle, pictures of him and Gakushuu at the park, at the cram school, at the beach. Gakushuu is so small.

He absently picks up the toys strewn as he makes his way around the house.

Gakuhou had never repainted, but over a decade the paint must have lost its luster, because this house is brighter. He turns the corner and Gakushuu is there, Tubs on his lap, reading a book.

It's a picture book.

Gakuhou tries to imagine his teenager with a copy of  _ Kitty at the Grocery Store  _ and laughs a little.

Gakushuu looks up at the noise. "Papa," he greets.

God. Gakushuu hadn't called him that in a long time. 

"Tell me what happened," Gakuhou says.

Gakushuu gives him a wide-eyed look.

"Yesterday," Gakuhou says. "I was lying on the floor in school, remember? Tell me what happened before that."

"You fell down," Gakushuu says. "You said we are going home, then you fell down."

Gakuhou frowns. He knew he hit his head, and he woke up on the floor. That much is obvious. "What else?"

"Then you stood up and Ri-ku-to came in."

"Before that, Asa- Gakushuu."

"Before… you were teaching."

"Then?"

"Then school was over and you said it was to go home."

Gakuhou sighs. Extracting information from a toddler was like pulling teeth.

"Go back to reading," Gakuhou says, and goes back to his office.

\--

His conclusions are… inconclusive, is the best way to describe them. Psychic abilities or time travel, he has no way of proving any of it - and either one must be true, but what would he do once he finds out? Go back to the future or use it to prevent what is about to happen?

He could save Ikeda's life. Ikeda didn't have to die… but what then? Set up Kunugigaoka as usual? What will he do about the octopus? What will he do about Gakushuu? 

Gakuhou's not stupid. He knows what happened to Ikeda set off a chain reaction for his future events. Saving Ikeda, he should not have the motivation to carry out the path he did and construct the 3E system… but knowing what he knows now, he knows it'd be a matter of time before another Ikeda happens even if this one doesn't. The current system doesn't cultivate strong enough students ready to face adversaries. 

Is that why… this happened to him? To give him the chance to know what to do?

But-

"PAPA!"

\--

"He's dirty."

"No!" Gakushuu is clawing at his pants. Gakuhou knows he shouldn't kick his son.

"It's dirty," Gakuhou snaps, and then drops Tubs into the washing machine with the rest of the laundry.

"Noo!" Gakushuu wails. He slaps his tiny hands against the plastic walls of the washing machine.

"If you were more careful with your drink then this wouldn't have happened," Gakuhou says. 

Gakushuu starts crying.

"None of that," Gakuhou scolds. "You very well can't undo your mistakes, right?" (Hah!) "You dirtied it so it has to be washed." 

"I don't wanna sleep without him," Gakushuu blubbers.

Gakuhou glances at the clock. Huh. He supposes it's too late to start a wash-dry cycle and have the toy clean before Gakushuu's bedtime. How unfortunate.

"Well it's already disgusting so you wouldn't have been able to sleep with it anyways," Gakuhou says. "Wash it now so you have it tomorrow."

Gakushuu slumps down at the washing machine, pouting.

Gakuhou rolls his eyes. He starts the wash cycle. "Go to bed."

Gakushuu crosses his arms. "Tubs!"

Gakuhou taps the glass. "See?" The drum is already filling with water. "It's going for a swim."

Gakushuu sniffs, and shakes his head.

Gakuhou had forgotten how stubborn a toddler Gakushuu was. His teenager was equally hot-headed but at least he could be reasoned with and he knew when to be logical.

Well, if he was going to teach logic to a kid, no time like the present/past. "Look. Tubs was dirty. If you washed him tomorrow, you would have to put him away right now and not sleep with him anyways. If you washed him now, he would be already clean tomorrow."

Gakushuu shakes his head.

Sigh. "Reflect on that," Gakuhou says. "Go to bed." 

\--

Gakuhou digs up the rest of his future staff records to see that they tally with what he knows of them. There's nothing much he can do with this information except that his hiring process would be a lot smoother now. 

When he goes to check on the laundry, it's past midnight. He certainly doesn't expect to see Gakushuu fast asleep on the floor next to the washing machine.

Gakuhou sighs. He picks up a soaking wet Tubs from the drum and drops him in the dryer, and turns it on. The noise makes Gakushuu stir a little but he remains otherwise still asleep.

Gakuhou rolls his eyes. With an arm he scoops Gakushuu up, and he checks on the cycle. Two hours. 

The kid was so light. Were children supposed to be this tiny? It's hard to imagine he'd grow up so much so fast. What was Gakuhou feeding him?

Well, nothing good for a child right now, he supposes. Gakuhou would have to look into better diets. He can't make sandwiches for the next ten years.

Gakushuu yawns. "Papa?" 

Gakuhou starts rocking him with one arm. It's instinct he didn't know he still had, and absently he starts humming. "Go back to sleep," he says, and feels Gakushuu's little head loll on his shoulder. 

Somehow he ends up with an armful of kid for the next two hours as he prepares lunch for the next day and cleans the place up. Then Tubs is nice and fluffy and dry (Gakuhou forgot to put in softener but it seems plenty soft already) so he tucks Gakushuu in bed with the tiger and finally goes to bed.

**In another timeline 10 years in the future**

**Korosensei, with a notepad: so aside from memory loss, what other symptoms of memory loss are you experiencing?**

**Gakuhou: do you ever think before you speak?**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suddenly irrevocably hit over the head with a Karushuu fic idea (and also, separately, a Gakushuu/Isogai fic idea.) 
> 
> **frequently asked questions**   
> Does Gakuhou suck at parenting?  
> Well, he's still an abusive parent. Like this fic has been full of soft Asano family bonding moments (especially with Good Hou) but the canon pair at at the worst odds with each other. Canon Gakuhou may not dropkick the four year old but he's still a dick, you know.   
> I've been thinking about it recently and I write them a lot as being on okay terms with each other, especially in my other fics where they are all slightly aged up. Do you guys think it makes me sound like I'm condoning a toxic relationship? I hope you all know that I'm not! I love their dynamics, I want them to get better, and I also think Gakuhou should get arrested.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote all the "Present time" chapters really quickly and excitedly but now we're here and I suddenly don't know what to write for the "Past" chapters kjhjk. Well, I do know what I want to write, but the concept to words generator in my head is stalling right now.  
> How is everyone doing?

**r/Parenting**

**My kid is four years old and he has a soft toy. Is this normal?**

**[Top Comment] literally yes**

It's day three in the past. Gakuhou knows Gakushuu wakes up when he hears an excited squeal from the kid's bedroom, and Gakushuu comes trailing down the steps with Tubs bouncing alongside him. The morning goes smoothly except Gakushuu seems to have developed separation anxiety over the Tubs Washing Experience and is adamant about bringing him to school with him.

Gakuhou warns, "we're going to have to wash it again if you drop it anywhere." 

Gakushuu looks sorrowful.

Whatever. Either Gakushuu learns about personal responsibility or the consequences of his own actions. "Fine. Bring the damn thing."

Gakushuu merrily skips after him to the car, Tubs squished in his half-zipped little backpack, its fluffy head poking out. They arrive at school on time. The students are understandably wary of Gakuhou's unorthodox behaviour over the past two days, Gakuhou can't blame them.

"Sensei," they greet. 

Gakuhou doesn't know how to address the situation so he decides not to address it. "Class," he says, "let's begin."

\--

It's lunchtime. Gakuhou unpacks the lunch he prepared, and the students take out their own.

Gakushuu bounds into the room, Tubs trailing behind him. 

"Oh, it's little Tubs!" Mori says. 

"Tubs!" Gakushuu says, lifting the tiger over his head. "Says hallo."

"Hello, Tubs," the three students echo.

"Remember what I said,” Gakuhou says. “Dirty him and we’ll have to wash him again.”

“Again?” Mori says. “Did you wash him yesterday? I’m surprised Gakushuu didn’t put up a fuss.”

“Oh, he did,” Gakuhou says.

There’s a pause.

Gakushuu nods obediently, and balances Tubs on a chair. He takes the one adjacent and starts eating.

Gakuhou gives him a head pat. Gakushuu wriggles in his seat.

"So, Sensei," Ikeda starts. "Um. How have you been these past few days?"

"I'm in a little bit of a dilemma," Gakuhou says.

The students exchange looks. "Anything we can help you with?" 

Gakuhou looks at them. They grow up to be successful. Mori ends up a junior manager in an architectural company, Nakai takes up junior board director in an accounting firm. Gakuhou has kept in loose contact with them - but after Ikeda, they were all hurting and something about it put a wedge between all three of them, like they couldn't have conversation without the elephant in the room.

Now Gakuhou wonders if he should have checked up on them more often, they were as much his students as Ikeda was, and now he feels like he simply turned away when they might have needed his support the most. 

They've found out after he did, from a friend of a friend of a friend. Mori had called him crying, asking if it was true, and Gakuhou said yes. Then Mori asked him why he didn't tell him or Nakai, and Gakuou couldn't answer and Mori hung up.

"I need to think some things over," Gakuhou says.

"You can always have us babysit Gakushuu if you need some time," Nakai says. "We won't mind and you're always super busy, being a full time teacher and parent is hard."

"It's nothing I can't handle," Gakuhou says. "Gakushuu is a manageable child."

"He's always been very agreeable," Mori agrees.

"Agreeable," Gakuhou snorts. "Wait till he becomes a teenager."

\--

He'd put it off long enough, so he goes to the doctor that afternoon. He's had a little bump on his head from when he fell down in the classroom, but nothing that should cause any memory problems to this extent. (Even if he had suffered from an ailment he imagines it would be memory loss, not clairvoyance.)

He parks Gakushuu in the lobby with the receptionist and later emerges to see the passing staff and one of the patients happily playing with him. Gakuhou waves a hand and Gakushuu obediently bounds over. 

"What's four times three?" Gakuhou asks.

"Twelve," Gakushuu says. He beams up at Gakuhou.

"Correct. Twenty one divided by three?"

Gakushuu opens his mouth, but his face scrunches up in confusion and he starts staring at his fingers.

"Papa I only have ten fingers."

"You managed to do twelve, didn't you?" Gakuhou says. 

The people around them titter on in amusement. "He's so smart. You must be proud." A Waiting Room mother says. "Only four?"

"Mhm," Gakuhou hums. He finishes his transaction with the receptionist, by which time Gakushuu has come to an answer.

Gakushuu says, "Seven!" 

Gakuhou looks at his bill. He takes the pen by the counter and scratches off the total, then hands it to Gakushuu. "Sum it up."

Gakushuu stares at the receipt for a beat, then at Gakuhou with an appalled, betrayed look on his face.

"I'll get you a sweet if you figure it out by the time we get to the supermarket."

"Three hundred and fifty dollars!"

"Try again."

(Gakushuu gets a lollipop.)

**Same time, ten years in the future**

**Gakuhou: I miss you as a toddler**

**Gakushuu: I'm sure me as a toddler misses you too**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure most of you have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen next in this fic - if you don't think you do, trust me, you do. Writing little baby Gakushuu is the best thing ever but I also have no frame of reference for what a four year old should or should not know.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly there should be a parenting equivalent of wedding vows: for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish,  
> god knows some people need the reminder

**Someone: you must be proud of your son**

**Gakuhou: yeah, he has his moments**

What if you could turn back time with all your memories? What choices would you make years ago if you knew what you know now?

Gakuhou could change so much. He could  _ change so much _ .

The clock ticks by. It's midnight, day four. This feels like a countdown, and every minute that passes is a minute closer to the future.

He knows that this is the present, but he still can't help but think that this is the  _ past. _ And he knows exactly what the future holds.

Who could resist an opportunity like this?

Even if he didn’t want to change things, the fact remained that the same exact path he initially constructed will no longer be possible. He would already be influenced to make the most unconscious of subtle decisions that would shift things differently, never mind the major changes. No matter what, something was going to be different.

Besides, there was no way he would forgive himself if he let things follow the same course. He can't let Ikeda down twice.

Gakuhou gets to work. He begins to map out the chain of events, everything that happened and the factors that influenced them. What to change, what to keep? What should he start preparing for?

It's the weekend so Gakuhou has plenty of time to work uninterrupted. He’s deep into a comprehensive timeline on Kunugigaoka’s growth when there are soft knocks on the door of his office. 

“Yes?” Gakuhou says. He knows it’s Gakushuu (who else could it be?)

“Papa? Breakfast?”

Oh, he’s pulled an all-nighter. Would you look at that. 

“Alright, breakfast,” he says. Gakushuu is waiting by the door, Tubs in one arm. Gakuhou heads down to the kitchen and reheats last night’s leftovers (he’d accidently prepared too much, forgetting that the kid is a quarter his usual size) and feeds it to Gakushuu. 

Then he says, “I have work to get done, Gakushuu, can I trust you to entertain yourself for the day?”

Gakushuu looks at him and cocks his head. “What about lunch?”

“Ah. You can come get me during lunch, then.” 

He's penned out half the decade by noon. Gakushuu knocks on the door, disrupting his train of thought.

"I forgot how much of a hassle a kid was," Gakuhou mutters. He looks over at Gakushuu, who's swinging his legs in his seat, fiddling with his thumb. 

They make a quick lunch and then Gakuhou hastily resumes work. He needs to get the timeline out right before he forgets everything, in order to know what to set in motion and what to change.

Who he should have hired the first time round, what deals he should have taken, he could do so much better. No more mistakes, no more trial and error, no more-

'Knock, knock'

"FOR FUCK SAKE'S, GAKUSHUU!"

\--

"Look at what you did!"

"Nnghhh-"

"Stop crying! Stop-"

Deep breaths. 

"Stop crying."

Gakushuu shuts up, but he's still making annoying hiccuping noises. Ugh.

The kitchen is a mess. The dining area and the living room looks like a hurricane had barreled through it.

"Just a few hours to do some work, that's all I need. And you have to cause trouble. Look at all this mess. Who's going to clean it up? Are you going to clean it up?" 

Gakushuu rubs his eyes. "Y-yes-"

"How?" Gakuhou demands. "Are you going to sweep? Can you wipe the counter? Mop the floor?"

Gakushuu shakes his head and then he starts wailing again.

God, he wishes Gakushuu would just grow up already. He wishes the teenager were here - then he would know to just behave as expected of him and not-

"Nnnggghhh-"

"I said shut up!"

\--

"Papa's sorry, okay? Papa shouldn't have hit you. Look at me, Gakushuu?"

Gakushuu blinks at him through bleary eyes. Gakuhou wipes his tears away and smooths the side of his hair down, there's a red welt on his cheek.

Gakuhou lifts a hand again and Gakushuu flinches away so quickly that he almost falls over, and something in Gakuhou's chest aches. The grown up one has the same reflex.

"Shh, Papa's not going to hit you anymore."

Gakushuu hiccups. Gakuhou pats his hair. 

"Are you mad at Papa?"

Gakushuu shakes his head.

The older one wouldn't have hesitated to say he was.

"You can tell me if you're mad at me, Gakushuu," Gakuhou says. Please just say you are. That would be so much easier to deal with.  Gakushuu hasn't cried in years. 

Gakushuu - the little one - shakes his head again. Tears are streaming down his face. Gakuhou brushes them away.

He picks Gakushuu up and Gakushuu buries his face in Gakuhou's shoulder. Gakuhou kisses the top of his head.

"Papa shouldn't have done that," he murmurs. "Papa is bad today. Papa has been having bad days. You've been a good boy, Gakushuu, this isn't your fault, okay?"

"D-dirty-"

"I'll clean up the kitchen," Gakuhou tells him. "Go back to your room, okay? I know you don't want to see me now." Gakushuu always holed up in his room after an incident like this and he wouldn't come out even for meals, he needed his alone time. He carries the kid up to his room and sits him on the bed, then heads back down to clean up the mess.

It's late at night. Gakuhou pauses. Did he feed the kid dinner?

Oh. Ah. 

He heads back upstairs to Gakushuu's room and opens the door, but Gakushuu is already curled up with Tubs and fast asleep. His pillowcase and Tubs are stained wet. 

Gakuhou sits down on the floor by the bed. Gakushuu stirs, and one eye sleepily peeks out from where he has his face squished into Tubs. 

Gakuhou runs his hand through Gakushuu's hair and ruffles it. "You're so cute."

Gakushuu sniffles.

"Ah, fuck," Gakuhou sighs. He cradles Gakushuu's face and looks at the wound - it'd swell up. He goes to the medicine cabinet to retrieve some ointment for it.

"Papa's so bad to you, huh, Gakushuu?" Gakuhou mumbles. 

"N-no."

"Papa won't hit you again, okay? Papa loves you. I-" And then Gakuhou stops, because how many times has he told (the older) Gakushuu the same thing? 

Well... never. (How many times has he told Gakushuu he loves him?)

But if he did, he imagines Gakushuu won't believe what he says anyways, because that would be a lie-

Gakuhou stands up quickly. He puts his hands behind his back. 

That's what they always say, isn't it? _I love you, I won't do it again._ Gakuhou's not like that. He really...

He doesn't...

He only wants what's best for his son, and the future generations. That's why he does what he does.

He's in the past, so everything that happened... didn't. This is the first time. He'll just make sure there isn't a second.

He'll make Gakushuu a good breakfast tomorrow. The kid's asleep now, Gakuhou shouldn't wake him.

He goes back to work.

**Gakuhou is a walking domestic abuse PSA**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gakuhou: why can't you be more like Ikeda  
> Gakushuu: he's dead  
> Gakuhou:  
> Gakushuu:


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure if I correctly encapsulated the Mood I wanted this chapter to have... but this might be the closest I'll get.

**Have you seen the movie About Time? If you haven't, don't google it yet but if you have, you might know where this is going**

**Hey actually "About Time" is a pretty cool fic title why didn't I think of it earlier**

It's five days in the future and Gakuhou has started down a route that he can't decide if it is equally bad or worse than the original timeline. 

Gakushuu doesn't look for him in the morning and when Gakuhou goes to find him, he's curled up in the far end of the bed peeking out from under the covers. 

Gakuhou never hit Gakushuu when he was this small. It was such a bitter thing to say but Gakuhou first raised his hand when Gakushuu was seven.

When Gakuhou gets closer, Gakushuu brings Tubs up to cover his face.

"Come on, let me take a look," Gakuhou murmurs. He moves Tubs away and checks the wound, and reaches for the ointment he left on the bedside last night. Gakushuu sniffles. 

"Come on, let's get some breakfast, okay?" Gakuhou coos. He picks Gakushuu up and Gakushuu puts his hands over his face. 

Gakuhou’s prepared too much food again. He bounces the kid on his lap and afterwards watches him go back up to his room, and then for the first time wonders if he’s doing the right thing. 

\--

Of course he is! It’s just a little bit of hurt now so he could do better in the future. 

Gakuhou only ever wanted what's best for Gakushuu. He didn't want Gakushuu to turn out like Ikeda, soft and malleable and easy to push off a bridge. 

Gakuhou can't remember what choices he made. How did he treat Gakushuu? The four year old could barely stand to look at him now, it hasn't been a week. Did Gakushuu look at him? Did he hate him?

Did he think Gakuhou didn't love him?

But Gakuhou loved him so much. He didn't want anything bad to ever happen to his son… so he chose to play the villain. If Gakushuu could fight back at home, he could defend himself anywhere. And he did a good job of it too, right? Look at how Gakushuu turned out! Student council president, top scorer, sports teams captain…

...But…

…

...Gakushuu hated him, didn't he.

The four year old already hated him. Gakuhou didn't treat him any different then he would the fourteen year old. 

...what had that friend of Gakushuu's said? Kevin? He said that Gakuhou should teach Gakushuu to grow from failure. Gakuhou does! He imparts that constantly and Gakushuu grows from every time he falls down - he gets up and he gets back up stronger. 

Of course the ideal was that one would be proficient enough to never experience failure. Unnecessary suffering was a ridiculous notion to want, and you never knew the consequences of failure. What if it was a life-or-death situation like Ikeda?

Gakuhou couldn't lose Gakushuu. He couldn't. He was the only thing Gakuhou had left…

...except now he wasn't, was he?

What kind of cruel joke was the universe playing? He'd lived through ten years and lost so much and turns out none of it was real? What was he supposed to do now? He can't go back to normalcy, knowing the things he knows know.

Was his purpose to fix things? Maybe that's why the universe gave him a glimpse of an alternate pathway, the path where everything went wrong. He could fix his mistakes. Teach both Ikeda and Gakushuu to be strong so neither of them will go over the edge. He could prepare for all eventualities, especially with the octopus, strengthen his philosophy right from the start so he didn't need to get his hands dirty.

He'll fix things and do things differently. Make this the best possible timeline. Ikeda would live, Gakushuu would be stronger than ever, and-

Gakushuu. The fourteen year old. He was strong, but that could be improved. There are cracks in his logic, but Gakuhou could iron them out this time. He'll fill in the gaps from where the first Gakushuu fell short, he'll-

God. That felt… that feels wrong. The 'first' Gakushuu? That feels wrong to say.

There was only one Gakushuu, the four year old. That's the real Gakushuu, and the fourteen year old is from his dream sequence, his hallucination. He didn't exist.

It felt so real. 

He wasn't.

Who's to say the current timeline now, the four year old, isn't part of a dream sequence either? What if Gakuhou is in a nightmare within a nightmare? What if he raises this Gakushuu until he's fourteen and wakes up one day to another four year old? 

No! Gakushuu was real! Whether or not he existed he was real to Gakuhou! Gakuhou remembers the fourteen year old so clearly - he was the child Gakuhou remembers raising - watching him grow up, teaching him his multiplication tables and then trigonometry and then algebraic equations. The four year old was-

He's also Gakushuu. But… Gakuhou wants him to be better, stronger than the fourteen year old. But that would mean they would turn out different. How much different? Would he still like coffee? Orange juice? Would he still want to paint his room the same color, would he still choose to play soccer? 

What if he ends up replacing the fourteen year old in Gakuhou's memory? That wouldn't matter, would it? They were both still Gakushuu. What's one or the other?

What if the four year old makes a different friend other than Sakakibara? That would be something new Gakuhou would have to get used to. He should be meeting Sakakibara soon in elementary school.

…

No. 

No. No. This was…

Gakushuu was… 

Gakuhou remembers sending him off to his first international exchange program. Gakushuu waving at the airport. Keeping an eye on the news, double checking the details, worried and telling himself that Gakushuu would be safe and sound. That was Gakushuu's first flight without Gakuhou. Even if the four year old was flying off tomorrow, it wouldn't be Gakushuu's first flight without him anymore.

They went to Okinawa for the first time together when Gakushuu was five. They went to the beach, and Gakushuu got scared by a crab, and he chased the waves until he was exhausted. The four year old had never gone to Okinawa before.

This is… not a feeling Gakuhou can rationalize. Most people would kill for the prospect of going back in time to redo their life. Gakuhou was essentially getting that. Why couldn't he accept and embrace it?

Because Gakushuu wouldn't be there anymore.

This Gakushuu was biologically the same child, but he wasn't the one Gakuhou sent off to elementary school when he was six, was he? He wasn't even six yet. He wasn't the Gakushuu that Gakuhou brought to the first open house for Kunugigaoka, and he wasn't the Gakushuu that Gakuhou watched got elected student council president.

If he wanted the same child, he would have to do things the exact same way. Was that even possible? What would he have to do? 

Gakuhou couldn't control external circumstances but he could keep the home environment consistent. He would have to raise Gakushuu the same way, discipline him the same way. Get up every time he falls. Physical training, martial arts training. Run laps or no dinner. Home revision. Full marks or the crack of a belt. Listen to me. Be assertive, but never question my authority. I know what's best for you. Take ownership of your own actions. Deal with your own consequences. Failure is unacceptable. I raised you better than this. I taught you the material you need, you were careless. Why aren't you trying hard enough. Look at what you've done, you've ruined your perfect record. It's the kind of thing you can't make up for no matter what else you do in the future. You only get one chance. Are you willing to be so reckless in the future? Of course not, you're my son. There are expectations put on you. You're an Asano. Asano's don't cry. If you show weakness, your enemies will take advantage of you. They'll strike you when you're down. Learn this lesson at home. I'll teach you with mercy. Would you rather fail in the real world instead? You only get one chance. Why are you crying? I'm being very patient with you right now. You're getting on my nerves. Asanos don't cry. You're my son. I've done so much for you. You don't have a reason to cry. Do you want me to give you one? Why are you crying? Why am I crying? Why am I crying?

I love you, did I ever tell you that? I never wanted anything to happen to you. Did you know that? How do I tell you that? You're gone. I'll never see you again. Did you know that?

How do I say sorry to someone who will never hear it?

**I know the large big paragraph is jarring to read but I think it adds to the Effect like that, and I bridge from third person to first person perspective in hopes that it captures the Emotion I wishes it would**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprisingly I don't have an immediate fic or fic ideas lined up after this. I'll continue to update my current ongoings and I'll probably add more to the incomplete fics collection, honestly I always forget it exists so feel free to bump me a comment there! I never run out of things there given that I have what is literally an endless stash of abandoned works. 
> 
> Anyways I enjoyed making Gakuhou sad, stay tuned


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did Original Future Gakuhou realize the error of his mistakes? Sort of - he knows they're bad choices that made Gakushuu a miserable kid, but part of him still holds to the belief that it's for the greater good. Will he have realized anything? This trip to the past is not sufficient, in my opinion, to whack Gakuhou over the head with an overhaul of his ideology, but it's at least enough to tell him that he misses his kid.
> 
> On the bright side, Alternate Past Gakuhou has completely realized the folly of mistakes (that he did not do) and will thus not be doing them.

**Gakuhou misses Gakushuu**

"Ow!"

Part of the top shelf has found it fit to come toppling over. Gakuhou rubs the top of his head. 

"Papa?" Oh, it's Gakushuu at the door.

"Papa got an owie," Gakuhou mumbles. He looks over. "Are you laughing right now?"

Gakushuu claps both his hands over his mouth, giggles a little, and shakes his head.

"I feel like I deserved that," Gakuhou rolls his eyes. He hit Gakushuu so he'll accept a bit of bad karma gracefully. Ugh. Karma. "The day you meet someone named Karma is the day I die from irony."

"Kar-ma?" Gakushuu echoes. "Who's that?"

"Just some kid you'll know."

"I don't know him."

"You'll meet him in eight years."

"Are we friends?"

"Uh, yeah, sure."

"Best friends?"

Gakuhou pauses, and looks at Gakushuu. Then he snickers at the mental image. Imagine that. "Of course. Incredibly wonderful best of friends." 

Gakushuu tilts his head thoughtfully.

Gakuhou moves to take the frying pan off the heat, but scalds himself instead. "Ah fuck." Maybe this is a sign to expel Akabane. Or maybe it's one to not accept him in the first place.

Ah, but he makes such good competition for Gakushuu, and he raises the grade point average.

"Fuck," Gakushuu parrots happily.

"Oh f- shit. No. Don't say that."

Gakushuu giggles again, and runs off. Gakuhou looks over him in exasperation, then turns to the shelf. It'd be a quick fix to put it back together, he'll do it after breakfast.

\--

Gakushuu's forgiven him for the slap but Gakuhou, as relieved as he is, knows he doesn't deserve it. He knows the older one would not hesitate to keep bringing it up to remind him. Should he count himself lucky that this Gakushuu is not yet as vindictive?

Well, strangely enough, he misses the vindictiveness. He doesn't know how to be a soft parent the way he used to be. He knows he'll inadvertently hurt the younger one again, because he's not careful enough with his words or his actions. 

He misses the older Gakushuu.

"Papa?"

"Yes?"

"Water has spilled."

"Oh." Gakuhou rights the cup and wipes the spill. 

It's lunch. Gakushuu looks comically tiny in the chair, gripping on to a plastic fork and spoon. His legs are swinging and they don't touch the floor. Tubs is on the chair adjacent.

He remembers Gakushuu growing up so fast. What will this Gakushuu turn out to be like? Will he be any similar to the first Gakushuu? Soon he'll be five, then six, then ten, then fourteen. Gakuhou blinks, and then it's like years have passed.

\--

Then his head is hurting, he feels like the world has just spun, and a fourteen year old version of Gakushuu stares back at him.

"Dad?" Gakushuu says. Gakushuu almost never calls him Dad. Is he in another timeline? Gakuhou can't do this again, he can't.

Gakuhou's voice comes out more raw and uncertain than he intended. "Gakushuu."

Gakushuu's face changes. He stands up straighter, he tilts his head, and then suddenly it's the Gakushuu that he remembers. "Principal, I-"

And then Gakuhou is hugging him. He called him Principal. It's him, it's really him - he's so relieved he could cry.

"A-are you crying right now?" Gakushuu says. 

"I missed you so much." Gakuhou hugs him tighter. All the things he's always wanted to say. "I love you."

"Woah!" Gakushuu twists out of his grip. "You should sit down."

Gakuhou wipes his eyes with the back of his hand. "I'm fine."

"You should sit down," Gakushuu repeats. "What has gotten into you? Did you get your memories back or not?"

"What?"

"Your memories? Oh no, did you forget you have amnesia? Your brain damage must be spiraling, I knew that doctor was full of shit, I'm going to sue him until he-"

"I don't have amnesia," Gakuhou says forcefully. "Gakushuu. Listen to me."

"You lost all your memory from up to a decade ago last week and you thought I was four."

What? Hold on. 

"What is the date?" Gakuhou says.

Gakushuu tells him. "You went about Kunugigaoka looking for four year old me when I was chasing after you to stop you," Gakushuu is saying, "you-"

That's about a week from when he was last… "here". Where is "here" exactly? This is the right Gakushuu so this must be the right timeline? He's missing a week of time. No, he spent that week in the past. 

...And that past self of his, who was the father to the four year old, spent that week here.

Did he seriously swap places with his past self for a week? He can't even begin to get into the logistics of making sense of all of this right now. 

"-gave Ren a heart attack, and-"

What was the most recent event that happened in the present?

Gakuhou interrupts him. "I beat up your four exchange program friends."

Gakushuu gapes at him. "Yes! You remember that? I don't think I told you about it. Did someone else tell-"

"I don't have amnesia, Gakushuu," Gakuhou says. 

“Uh,” Gakushuu says, “you clearly did.”

Gakuhou leads him to the couch. He’s still holding onto Gakushuu’s hand, which Gakushuu is making an uncertain face at, but he lets Gakuhou keep the contact. Gakuhou doesn’t want to let go, not yet. 

“I did not have amnesia,” Gakuhou repeats, and he shushes Gakushuu when he opens his mouth to reply. “It’s unbelievable, but my consciousness somehow swapped places with myself from the past.”

Gakushuu gapes at him.

“I spent the past week with you when you were four years old.”

Gakushuu continues gaping.

“We were still at the cram school, Ikeda was still alive…” Gakuhou looks at his son, who’s now staring in uncomfortable silence. Gakuhou feels out of his depth - it was easier with the four year old - but this was a long time coming, and their strained relationship was Gakuhou’s fault. Gakuhou wanted to have this talk, to tell Gakushuu everything he needed to now that he got the chance to…

...but it was so damn awkward.

“The other you,” Gakushuu says, stilted. “He knows.”

Gakuhou frowns. “About Ikeda?”

“Well, I had to tell him,” Gakushuu gets out. He bristles defensively, shoulders rising to his ears. “I-"

Gakuhou brings a hand up to Gakushuu's face and cradles his cheek. The same place he hit the little one at. It's unmarked, unscarred. "I must not have taken it well."

Gakushuu looks away.

"The past has been… enlightening," Gakuhou says. 

"Oh," Gakushuu's cheeks are pink. 

"Do you know how scared I was when I thought I'd never see you again?" 

Gakushuu frowns. "I was four, wasn't I? It's not like-"

"I knew I'll have to do things differently but that meant that I'll never get this you back."

Gakushuu blinks, and scowls, and looks to the ground. "I-"

Gakuhou's hand falls. "Me in the past was nicer to you, wasn't I?"

Gakushuu shrugs a little half-heartedly.

"He does not know about the failures of the system yet," Gakuhou says. "He-"

"I tried to change his mind," Gakushuu cuts in. "I hate it."

"It's for your own good."

"I know. I still hate everything you've done to me." Gakushuu looks him in the eye, proud and defiant, and Gakuhou thinks, _I'm so proud of him_. 

"I hope you managed to succeed, then," Gakuhou says. "I believe he still has a lot to learn... and whatever you taught him, it will be the better outcome for the both of us."

Gakushuu grins at him. "Since you said it first, I suppose it's only fair for me to reciprocate with the truth and tell you I missed you too."

\--

\--

"WHAT?!"

"Oh," Gakushuu says. "I forgot about that."

"Forgot about what?" Agent Karasuma says, from where he's seated on Gakuhou's couch. 

Next to Gakushuu, Jelavic throws an arm over the back of the couch and stares at him. Then she grins.

"Go fish!" The octopus says, then, "ow!" 

Karasuma's kicked him.

"Forgot about what?!" Gakuhou seethes. Why is Karasuma and Jelavic and the Octopus in his house? Why are they with Gakushuu? How did they-

Gakushuu shrugs. He raises both hands in a 'what do you want me to say?' motion. "Surprise."

"You know about-?!"

Karasuma stands up. "Wait."

"Like past-you can keep the secret of a _giant yellow octopus_ from me without even knowing what it is," Gakushuu tells him.

Ah. His past self must have been. Unaware. Of the various... delicate matters surrounding Kunugigaoka. All it had to take was one (1) slip-up.

He was only gone for a week, dammit! 

Gakushuu turns to the 3-E teachers. "He got his memories back. Well it's a bit more complicated than that, but essentially he's back to normal."

The octopus cheers, his many many tentacles wiggling in the air.

Gakushuu hi-fives one of them.

**This universe runs on the alternate timeline theory - which means now there is a separate timeline where a very baffled Gakuhou is staring at his kid with a bandage on his face and a dented cupboard, coming to multiple realizations at once and thinking, I'm going to kick my own ass**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gwen's tips on how to write Strange Situations: if you want to write about something cool but you can't think about how the characters got into the situation... just don't write about how. Just have it magically happen. You don't always have to wrack your brain to fill the pot hole - sometimes it is okay to walk around it.
> 
> Can you tell I wrote this fic for Alternate baby Shuu and Alternate Gakuhou? Which is why the next and final chapter is about them.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everybody, I have terrible news. I didn't write anything for this chapter.  
> Let us begin
> 
> Also all of you in the comments have absolutely Nailed the essence of this chapter

There is a long awaited reunion, I don't know how to draw toddlers

[ ](https://64.media.tumblr.com/33285e7991b8e7eafc43c0fbcb2feb35/790a514ac34a9950-9a/s250x400/b281efaa330ad88f0b7a07c7844f953edb250987.png)

Gakuhou is fueled by spite such that he finds a new life goal: to break the laws of space-time and punch himself in the face

Ikeda is understandably concerned, and Gakuhou decides to actually use his brain this time round to Make Decisions

****

His students are spooked. Gakuhou tries to tell them the truth. They don't believe him. Gakushuu tells them "Papa hit his head". That, they do believe.

In which Gakuhou finds out he has somehow managed the impossible feat of giving yourself paperwork from the future

****

"I would just save it so I don't have to do it later, but I don't trust any of the decisions he made, so they're all going to the shredder."

"If you want something done right, you have to do it your damn self" 

\- A man who has been too spoiled by modern technology to go back to neanderthal living and decides to invent reverse engineer the first smartphone

Gakuhou starts pushing his hair back anyways because it's neater

(featuring little Gakushuu)

Featuring slightly bigger Gakushuu, gone off to elementary school, and Gakuhou gets deja vu

"So I didn't hallucinate that entire week?"

"Are you still going on about this?"

"Hey, your future self told me I'd meet someone named Karma."

"What kind of name is Karma?"

"I don't know. He said we'll be friends?"

"With someone named _Karma_? I'm sure that was a joke."

(In another timeline, in the future

Original Gakuhou: I feel a disturbance in the force.)

(Gwen Voice) Starring the weirdest trio anyone has ever put together

They're best friends, your honor (I have some GakuRen and KaruShuu for the soul)

Something about Gakushuu in that Kunugigaoka yellow cardigan, to highlight his alternate preppy personality? I know it looks different because it was originally supposed to be a cargo jacket instead (He looks like Maehara)

Gakushuu: How many times have I told you guys? The moon is going to be blown up by a giant flying yellow octopus and also time travel is real

Karma: You're intelligent, and also a dumbass

Ren: You wouldn't believe me, but his dad is the same way

"Other than that weird week when I was four, my dad's a great parent. He's really nice to me. Yes, he still pushes me to work hard and push my limits. What happened that week? Oh, it's very embarrassing, he'll get pissy if I talk about it, hah! He hit his head and forgot how to cook, he fed me plain rice for a week. Oops, I've already said too much. " 

"I spent all the time reverse-engineering what I remembered of a smartphone from the future for my personal usage (because I missed them), but there was nobody to contact or no apps to stare at, so I was forced to kickstart a market for it. Now I'm a billionaire against my own will. The world looks to me to innovate the latest technologies, but I only have one goal. No, I can't tell you what it is, it's just a personal pet project of mine and Gakushuu's."

Alternate Gakushuu: SIKE. I told you time travel was real!

The Originals:

Alternate Gakushuu: So what have you been up to in the decade since the switch?

Original Gakushuu: It's been approximately five days

Cross-dimensional family bonding is the best kind of bonding

"Do you think they'll find out if we switch outfits"

"It'd be obvious. You still have life in your eyes."

"Please get some sleep?"

"I will not but thank you for asking"

In which (Alternate) Gakuhou does the one thing he came here for, and crosses his life goal off his bucket list

"How bad of a decision can it be if someone doesn't come back from the future to stop you from doing it?"

\- Gakuhou, probably, before getting drop-kicked by himself 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it, that's all  
> Thanks everyone for participating  
> (The resolution for some of the pics were shot :( i'm sad but not sad enough to re-figure them out)  
> (You can't prove that I didn't write a whole 20k word fic just so I can draw the last picture with context)

**Author's Note:**

> If you made it this far: I'm sorry you had to read more of this nonsensical trash  
> Thanks for reading, hope you liked it!


End file.
